The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
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20VC: Why Hardware Is Actually Software Wrapped In Plastic & "Of Course Hardware Is Hard, Everything Is Hard" with Ben Einstein, Founder & General Partner @ Bolt VC
17 augustus 2016 · 28 min
Ben Einstein is Founder and General Partner @ Bolt, Bolt is a fund designed to address the unique needs of early-stage startups at the intersection of hardware and software, investing up to $500K in pre-seed, pre-product companies. They have created and backed some world class businesses that have received later funding from Khosla, Kleiner Perkins, NEA, and Softtech just to name a few. Lees meer
In Today's Episode with Ben You Will Learn:
How Ben made his way into VC from such a product centric background?
Why have we seen a rise in hardware investing over the last 5 years? How has this affected the hardware ecosystem?
To what extent do hardware and software integrate today? Why have we seen the rise of software determining the hardware winners?
Why is brand the most important thing in consumer hardware? Who has done it best? Who has not done it well?
What is Ben's biggest advice to hardware founders today? Why is raising too much money extremely dangerous for hardware founders?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Ben's Fave Blog and Newsletter: Ben Evans
Ben's Fave Book: The Box
Ben's Most Recent Investment: Grow: Redesigning Gardening
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Ben on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
Eve make 1 perfect mattress – made with 3 layer technology and next generation memory foam. It comes packaged in a beautiful box and arrives the day after you order. You get 100 nights to try it with free return pick-up – it really is the perfect mattress for everyone. Just go online to evemattress.co.uk and enter the code 20VC for £50 off. Everybody deserves the perfect start with Eve.
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20VC: 500 Startups' Dave McClure on Whether Unicorns Are Necessary For Venture Returns & Why Ownership Is Not The Math To Think About When Investing
15 augustus 2016 · 27 min
Dave McClure is the founding partner of 500 Startups, who have made over 1500 investments in the likes of Twilio, SendGrid, Intercom and Makerbot just to name a few. Prior to 500 Dave was on the investment team at Founders Fund, he also led the Facebook Fund Incubator and was Head of Marketing @ Paypal pre IPO. Lees meer
In Today's Episode with Dave You Will Learn:
How Dave made his way into VC and came to found 500 Startups?
Do you need unicorn exits to have significant venture returns? What is the 500 view with regards to the hit ratio of finding unicorns?
How much ownership does 500 typically take? Does this allow Dave enough of a right to follow on in further rounds with such a small initial slice?
How does Dave and 500 avoid the inherent signalling risk involved with their fund and accelerator? How prominent is signalling in today's market?
What did Dave think of Sam Altman's statement on YC not accepting companies from other accelerators? How does Dave view YC companies?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Dave's Fave Blog and Newsletter: Brad Feld, AVC, Mark Suster
Dave's Fave Book: Guns Germs and Steel, The Mystery of Capital
Dave's Most Recent Investment: Markhor
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Dave on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
Eve make 1 perfect mattress - made with 3 layer technology and next generation memory foam. It comes packaged in a beautiful box and arrives the day after you order. You get 100 nights to try it with free return pick-up - it really is the perfect mattress for everyone. Just go online to evemattress.co.uk and enter the code 20VC for £50 off. Everybody deserves the perfect start with Eve.
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20VC: Wealthfront's Adam Nash on What Makes Great CEO's & Why Humans Suck At Investing
12 augustus 2016 · 28 min
Adam Nash is the President and CEO of Wealthfront, where he is on a mission to put the client first and change the bad practices of the financial services industry. Adam joined Wealthfront from Greylock Partners, where he was an Executive-in-Residence. Prior to Greylock, he was VP of Product Management at LinkedIn, where he built the teams responsible for core product, user experience, platform and mobile. Adam also held a number of roles at Ebay, Atlas Venture Preview Systems and Apple. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Adam came to be President and CEO @ Wealthfront?
2.) What makes a great product person and how does that compare to Adam's role now as CEO and the skills required to be a great CEO?
3.) Is it fair to suggest that PMs are the CEO of a mini product? How transferrable are the skills of product managers to the skills required of CEOs?
4.) How was the transition for Andy in making the move from PM to COO to CEO? What were the biggest challenges and surprises?
5.) Why does Andy believe that building software through hierarchy does not work? How can leaders empower their team with a sense of ownership?
6.) Why do humans suck at investing? Will we see the domination of full scale financial robo advisors in the next 10 years?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Adam's Fave Book: Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Adam's Fave Blog and Newsletter: Nuzzel
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Adam on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!
Eve make 1 perfect mattress – made with 3 layer technology and next generation memory foam. It comes packaged in a beautiful box and arrives the day after you order. You get 100 nights to try it with free return pick-up – it really is the perfect mattress for everyone. Just go online to evemattress.co.uk and enter the code 20VC for £50 off. Everybody deserves the perfect start with Eve.
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20VC: Dollar Shave Club's Series A & B Lead Investor, David Pakman on The Requirements For A Successful Subscription Business & Why A Lot of Investors Do Not Like Consumer
10 augustus 2016 · 26 min
David Pakman is a Partner at Venrock and the man behind Venrock's leading of the Series A and B rounds for Dollar Shave Club. Prior to Venrock David spent 12 years as an internet entrepreneur. Including being CEO of eMusic, the world's leading digital retailer of independent music, second only to iTunes. Prior to eMusic, David co-founded Myplay in 1999, which he later sold, in 2001, to Bertelsmann's ecommerce Group. If that wasn't enough David is also the co-creator of Apple Computer's Music Group. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How did David make his way into the world of VC with Venrock?
David invested in Dollar Shave when subscription ecommerce funding was largely out of favour. What was it that excited Dave about Dollar Shave and why did he choose to invest?
To what extent do we see the existence of party rounds in today's funding environment?
Venrock took the rather unusual position to lead both the A and B rounds for Dollar Shave. What was the internal conversations like within Venrock towards this decision?
Dollar Shave was growing at phenomenal rates with impressive growth, what was behind the decision to sell at this time? What were the incentives behind selling to Unilever?
Will we see other large e-commerce exits in the future? What does the future M&A environment look like for consumer businesses?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Matt's Fave Book: Mindset by Carole Dweck
Matt's Most Recent Investment: Pearl
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and David on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
Eve make 1 perfect mattress – made with 3 layer technology and next generation memory foam. It comes packaged in a beautiful box and arrives the day after you order. You get 100 nights to try it with free return pick-up – it really is the perfect mattress for everyone. Just go online to evemattress.co.uk and enter the code 20VC for £50 off. Everybody deserves the perfe…
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20VC: Data Collective's Matt Ocko on Why "All Fund Size Models Are Wrong" and The Lifecycle of Current Venture Funds Is Inefficient?
8 augustus 2016 · 28 min
Matt Ocko is the Co-Managing Partner and Co-Founder @ Data Collective and has over 3 decades of experience as a tech entrepreneur and VC and has made investments in the likes of Facebook, Zynga, Uber and AngelList just to name a few. If that was not enough he is also an inventor on over 40 granted or in process patents. A truly deep thinker and one of my fave ever shows to record. Lees meer
In Today's Episode with Matt You Will Learn:
How Matt made his way into VC and came to co-found Data Collective?
Why does Matt believe "All Fund Size Models are Wrong". Does the current bifurcation of VC into angels/micro-VCs, small seed/A funds, big bruisers, and post-C/pre-IPO make for sub-optimal returns both on a societal and monetary perspective?
What does the opportunity fund allow Data Collective? How do they use the initial fund to invest for insight in into companies at the earliest stages? How do they avoid the negative signalling risk that is normally ensued with an opportunity fund?
How important is thesis driven venture firms? Does specialisation aid or hinder venture returns and why?
How does Matt view the lifecycle of current venture? Matt has previously said it is inherently inefficient, why?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Matt's Fave Blog and Newsletter: MIT Technology Review
Matt's Fave Book: The Way Things Work
Matt's Most Recent Investment: Tradeshift
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Matt on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
Eve make 1 perfect mattress - made with 3 layer technology and next generation memory foam. It comes packaged in a beautiful box and arrives the day after you order. You get 100 nights to try it with free return pick-up - it really is the perfect mattress for everyone. Just go online to evemattress.co.uk and enter the code 20VC for £50 off. Everybody deserves the perfect start with Eve.
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20VC: Turning Down Apple & Getting Funded By Chamath @ Social Capital with Dhananja Jayalath, Co-Founder & CEO @ Athos
5 augustus 2016 · 20 min
Dhananja Jayalath is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Athos, creating the new standard for fitness by changing the way we train the human body. Athos have funding from our friends at Social Capital, Felix Capital and DCM Ventures just to name a few of their investors. Prior to Athos, DJ turned down a job with Apple straight from University to pursue his vision of creating the next generation of consumer fitness wearables with Athos. Lees meer
In Today's Episode with DJ You Will Learn:
How DJ went from University to turning down Apple to founding Athos?
How did DJ come to meet Chamath @ Social? How was the fundraising experience? What did Athos do well and what would DJ like to improve for the next round?
How does DJ approach iteration and testing within product testing at Athos?
What are the lessons DJ has learned in the manufacturing and iteration process with Athos?
How does DJ approach business models for Athos today? Does DJ agree that the winners of hardware will be determined by software?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
DJ's Fave Book: Velocity: The 7 New Laws For A World Gone Digital
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and DJ on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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20VC: From Seed To Series A: The Due Diligence, The Valuations, The Investment Decision Making Process with Steve Schlafman @ RRE Ventures
3 augustus 2016 · 25 min
Steve Schlafman is an early stage investor @ RRE Ventures, where he specialises on marketplaces, mobile services, and hardware. Steve is responsible for RRE's investments in theSkimm, Hightower, TinyBop, Breather, and Managed by Q. Prior to joining RRE as a Principal, Steve was a Principal and rockstar seed investor at Lerer Ventures. Before becoming a venture capitalist, Steve worked at Stickybits Inc. and Turntable.fm, and served as Director of Venture Investments at The Kraft Group. Steve also worked at Massive Inc. and at Microsoft, where he focused on Biz Dev Strategy and Corporate Finance. Lees meer
In Today's Episode with Steve You Will Learn:
How Steve made his way into VC from Microsoft, to Kraft to startup to VC?
Why does Steve think Seed to Series A is such a different ball game? What are the different characteristics encompassed within each?
With such little data at seed, what does Steve's DD process look like? How does that affect his investment decision making process @ RRE?
What is the valuation comparison between Seed and Series A? How is this determined and how has this changed since Steve's time at Lerer?
Why do the best markets often appear small and become meaningful? How does Steve look to detect these small markets?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Steve's Fave Book: Who (Hiring Process), Work (Hiring @ Google), Leading (Michael Moritz)
Steve's Fave Blog or Newsletter: AVC, Stratechery, The Skimm
Steve's Most Recent Investment: Brightwheel
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Steve on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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20VC: YC's Justin Kan on The 3 Qualities All Successful Investors Have & Why 'VCs Don't Really Do Any Real Work'?
1 augustus 2016 · 26 min
Justin Kan is a Partner @ world renowned, Y Combinator. The birthplace of the likes of Airbnb, Reddit, Dropbox, Stripe, Zenefits and many more incredible companies. Prior to YC, Justin co-founded SocialCam, acquired by Autodesk for $60m and Twitch.tv, the world's leading video platform and community for gamers, acquired by Amazon for $970m in 2014. Lees meer
In Today's Episode with Justin You Will Learn:
How Justin came to found Twitch.tv and then later made the transition into VC with YC?
Having been a YC alum, how has Justin seen YC as an institution change over time? How have the interviews, demo days, mentoring arrangements altered? How can YC keep the same quality of startup treatment with the mass scaling taking place?
YC always positions itself as an accompaniment to the VC industry, does the new $700m YC growth fund not directly compete against VCs?
What 3 qualities does Justin believes all good investors must have? How has Justin looked to establish his own personal brand? What has worked and what has not?
Justin is very bullish on Snapchat, why so? What makes Justin so excited for the platform? How does Justin use it to such success? What would Justin like to see change in the platform?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Justin's Fave Book: Shogun
Justin's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Nuzzel & The Information
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Justin on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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20VC: Why People Should Never Be Surprised If Fired, Subscription E-Commerce Is Hot & People Never Give True and Direct Feedback with Amir Elaguizy, Co-Founder @ Cratejoy
29 juli 2016 · 26 min
Amir Elaguizy is the Founder & CEO @ YC backed, Cratejoy, the website builder and backend for subscription e-commerce stores. Cratejoy have funding from the likes of General Catalyst, Andreesen Horowitz, Y Combinator and Charles River Ventures With regards to Amir, he previously founded Market Zero, a poker software company which was acquired by Zynga, where he then spent time as a game CTO. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Amir came to be an entrepreneur, got acquired by Zynga and then started Cratejoy?
2.) With the recent acquisition of Dollar Shave Club, the subscription e-commerce business is hot, why does Amir think most people misunderstand the space?
3.) Amir previously said, 'owning recruiting is the single most important thing you can do', why does he believe this? Does Amir believe that the early team might not necessarily be the team to evolve from a $1m business to a $20m business?
4.) What is the difference between foundational team members and mercenary team members? What are the signs an individual is worth spending time to grow with?
5.) Amir previously said, 'most people have never received true direct feedback on performance', how does Amir look to differentiate himself? Is it suitable for the leadership to be the bad guy?
6.) How can the firing process be approached with respect and dignity? Should it ever be a surprise? If it is a surprise what does that suggest about your leadership previously?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Amir's Fave Book: Hard Thing About Hard Things
Amir's Fave Podcasts: The Twenty Minute VC, SaaStr
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Amir on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!
This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to de…
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20VC: Mythbuster: Is Mobile Dying? Is AR/VR Overhyped? Is The Excitement Around Bots Justified with Sean Flynn, Partner @ Shasta Ventures
27 juli 2016 · 29 min
Sean Flynn is a Managing Partner @ Shasta Ventures where he invests in mobile-enabled consumer Internet and enterprise software companies. Sean has led Shasta's investments in Dollar Shave Club, Whisper and serves on the board of directors for the likes of TimeHop, Zefr, Swipely, Bloc and TigerText. Before joining Shasta, Sean worked at Yahoo, where he focused on growing the company's communication and messaging products such as Yahoo! Mail, Messenger, Groups and Flickr. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Sean made his way into VC from the titan that is Yahoo?
Now today I want to do something slightly different and do a myth busting episode, take a couple of sectors and discuss whether they are truths and complexities to the core statement.
2.) Starting with the most common assumption in VC that it is all about team, to what extent does Sean place team ahead of product and is this a slight misconception?
3.) Many are saying mobile is a dying space. Sean previously said, 'it is not dead yet'. Why is there promise for mobile? What will be the catalyst of it's death? How does this affect Sean's investment decision making?
4.) Another much hyped topic is AR/VR, is the excitement surround AR and VR justified? Where does Sean stand on investing in the installation phase of cycles?
5.) Similar to AR/VR is the hype surround bots justified? What will be the sustainable business model for bots?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Sean's Fave Book: What Do You Do With An Idea
Sean's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Nuzzel, 538 Blog
Sean's Most Recent Investment: Tally
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Sean on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!
This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to …
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20VC: Semil Shah on Why The Most Important Thing An Investor Can Do Is Attract Follow On & The Fundamentals of VC Branding
25 juli 2016 · 23 min
Semil Shah is the founder of Haystack, an early stage investment firm now investing out of it's third fund, with previous investments being Instacart, DoorDash, Managed by Q. In the past he has also been a consultant to some of the leading funds in the valley including the likes of Kleiner Perkins, DFJ, General Catalyst and more. If that was not enough, Shah also has an extensive career in media having been a contributor for both TechCrunch and the Harvard Business Review in the past. Due to all of this Shah was listed by Marc Andreesen as one of his '55 Unknown Rockstars in Tech'. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Semil made his way into VC? How did he come to create Haystack?
2.) What were the challenges and concerns for Semil in raising and establishing his own fund?
3.) Question from Michelle Tandler: How does Semil send deals through to Series A? What is his 'cool' process? What are the commonalities of those that make it to Series A and those that do not?
4.) How has Semil approached the aspect of personal VC branding? How does he evaluate the rise of the personal VC brand in the last few years?
5.) Why does Semil believe he is not 'founder friendly' in the conventional sense?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Semil's Fave Book: Burmese Days by George Orwell
Semil's Most Recent Investment: AquaCloud
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Semil on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!
This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to designers from around the world.
How Does It Work?
Once you have launched your brief, designers will begin submitting quality designs for you to review. With some constructive feedback, you can quickly generate a large gallery of designs that re…
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20VC: Unity 3D's David Helgason on Building a $bn Business, Getting Funded By Sequoia and Powering The Pokemon Revolution
22 juli 2016 · 25 min
David Helgason is the Founder and Board Member @ Unity 3D. The company that recently announced a new $181m Series C, valuing the company at $1.5bn. Unity's platform has revolutionized the game industry by allowing any size studio from Indie to Triple-A to create beautiful and compelling games and experiences and monetize them with their advertising and analytics services. As for David, he served as CEO of Unity from its founding in 2003 right up until 2014 taking the company through numerous funding rounds including from the one and only Sequoia Capital. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How David came to found Unity 3D?
2.) How pivotal was the rise of the App stores to the rise of Unity 3D? What does David make of Apple's recent announcement to add paid search and subscription pricing?
3.) How does David evaluate the current gaming landscape? What does he not like abou the industry and how the major players are operating?
4.) What are David's thoughts on the emerging platforms like AR and VR? How does he incorporate them into Unity's future product roadmap?
5.) How was the fundraising process for David with Unity? How did the Sequoia investment happen and what has it been like to work with them and Roelof Botha?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
David's Fave Book: Guns, Germs & Steel
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and David on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!
This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to designers from around the world.
How Does It Work?
Once you have launched your brief, designers will begin submitting quality designs for you to review. With some constructive feedback, you can quickly generate a large gallery of designs that really do fit your needs. Yo…
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20VC: Why The Whole Industry Is Backward Looking, The Best Funds Are Entrepreneur Led and Venture Is All About Access with Alex Bangash, Founder @ Trusted Insight
20 juli 2016 · 26 min
Alex Bangash is a Managing Director @ Rumson Group where he helps his clients invest in some of the best performing funds around the world. Alex has done just that having made over 50 investments into funds across the globe. If that was not enough he is also the founder of Trusted Insight, the worlds largest platform for institutional investors and backing from the first investors or founder @ Facebook, LinkedIn, Mint and Match.com. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Alex made his way into the world of investing in VC funds?
2.) Why does Alex believe the whole finance industry is backward looking? Is this why he thinks there is so much VC churn?
3.) Why does Alex believe VC is always about access? Is this why Alex has such a strong preference for funds that are also platforms?
4.) Why does Alex believe true early stage is getting smaller and smaller? How does his return expectations differ according to the size of the fund?
5.) What happens when funds do not go to plan or do not have notable exits to raise fund II? What happens then?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Alex's Fave Book: Ben Horowitz: Hard Thing About Hard Things, Peter Thiel: Zero To One
Alex's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Paul Graham
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Alex on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!
This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to designers from around the world.
How Does It Work?
Once you have launched your brief, designers will begin submitting quality designs for you to review. With some constructive feedback, you can quickly generate a large gallery of designs that really do fit your needs. You can have exactly what you need within just three days. Once you have selected your fav…
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20VC: Flybridge's Jeff Bussgang on Why It Is Not All About Unit Economics & Why VCs Are Big Data Decision Makers
18 juli 2016 · 25 min
Jeff Bussgang is a Co-Founder and General partner @ Flybridge Capital, where has made investments in numerous incredible companies including 2 former guests of the show, Jeff Seibert @ Crashlytics (sold to Twitter) and Josh Udashkin @ Raden. Jeff is also a Senior Lecturer @ Harvard Business School where he has co-authored no less than 15 cases. He is also an author having written the renowned, Mastering The VC Game to the acclaim of The Financial Times, TechCrunch, BusinessWeek and more. Jeff also has an incredible blog, Seeing Both Sides, which you can find here. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Jeff made his way into VC? How did he come to co-found Flybridge?
2.) To what extent does Jeff believe there is a glass ceiling for people without operations experience to progress up the VC ladder?
3.) How can companies establish cultures and processes when they have to change and reinvent every 6-12 months?
4.) What are venture returns? What metrics does Jeff use to determine his success?
5.) Is a focus on unit economics now one of the only ways to achieve equity value creation? How can consumer adoption drive equity value creation?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Jeff's Fave Book: Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Jeff's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Mattermark Daily
Jeff's Most Recent Investment: Sentenai
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Jeff on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!
This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to designers from around the world.
How Does It Work?
Once you have launched your brief, designers will begin submitting quality designs for you to review. With some constructive feedback, you can quickly generate a large gallery of designs that …
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20VC: Why Every Employee Should Re-Apply For Their Job Every Year & The Strategies To Prepare For A Successful Fundraise with Kyle Hill, Founder & CEO @ HomeHero
15 juli 2016 · 30 min
Kyle Hill is the Co-Founder & CEO @ HomeHero, one of the largest providers of non-medical home care in California. HomeHero has provided over 1 million hours of care to thousands of families and won "Best Employment Website of 2014". Due to this immense success Kyle has been on CNN, Forbes, Wall Street Journal and many more. HomeHero has raised funds from some of the world's best investors including Chamath & Mamoon @ Social Capital, Jason Calacanis @ TWIST and Peter & Michael @ Science Inc. Lees meer
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In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Kyle came to found HomeHero? What was the a-ha moment for him?
2.) Question from Mamoon @ Social Capital: Considering that this is not your typical software business; being largely people centric, how does Kyle think about the profitability of such a business?
3.) How much of a role does unit economics lay in the mind of Kyle? How does Kyle look to balance growth with profitability?
4.) How was the fundraising process for Kyle with Chamath & Mamoon @ Social Capital? What did Kyle do to prepare for the pitch? What did Kyle do well? What would Kyle look to improve upon? How would Kyle like VCs to treat him as a Founder?
5.) ?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Kyle's's Fave Book: Black Swan
Kyle's Fave Blog: The Best Designs.com
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Kyle on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!
This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to designers from around the world.
How Does It Work?
Once you have launched your brief, designers will begin submitting quality designs for you to review. With some constructive feedback, you can quickly generate a large gallery of designs that really do fit your needs.…
-
20VC: USV's Brad Burnham on Co-Founding USV with Fred Wilson, What They Look For In Potential Partners & Whether We Are Entering a Period of Consolidation or Expansion
13 juli 2016 · 25 min
Brad Burnham is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ Union Square Ventures. I feel Brad is far better described by his partner Fred Wilson, than I ever could so this is Fred's words on Brad. "Brad and I founded USV together in 2003. We had both been in the venture business for more than a decade, had made a fair bit of money, but were still hungry to prove ourselves. Brad is the strategist and the most principled investor in our firm. It was Brad's idea to write a treatise on venture capital and the internet before we set off to raise our first fund and that exercise we did together continues to be our guiding light. Brad is the person behind phrases like "the application layer of the technology stack" and "large networks of engaged users" that I use all the time. He gives me most of my good stuff which I often get credit for." Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Brad made his way into VC? How did he come to co-found USV with Fred in 2003?
2.) How did Brad approach team building with USV? What does he look for in his partners?
3.) Brad has previously stated his belief that 'history does not repeat itself but it does rhyme. How does this affect Brad's view toward market cycles, the way tech is adopted and ultimately replaced?
4.) What does Brad make of the extension of the private market? Are we entering a period of consolidation? What makes Brad believe this?
5.) Looking back at the history of USV, what have been the inflection points in both the stature of the firm and then Brad's learnings as a VC?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Brad's Fave Book: The Irrational Optimist
Brad's Most Recent Investment: OB1
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Brad on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!
This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs…
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20VC: USV's Albert Wenger on Automation Replacing Humans, The Universal Basic Income and The Instalment & The Deployment Phase
11 juli 2016 · 27 min
Albert Wenger is a partner at Union Square Ventures, one of the world's leading VC firms with investments in Twitter, Twilio, Zynga, Soundcloud, Tumblr, Lending Club and many more. Before joining USV, Albert was the president of del.icio.us through the company's sale to Yahoo and an angel investor (Etsy, Tumblr). He previously founded or co-founded several companies, including a management consulting firm and an early hosted data analytics company. Albert also writes a fantastic blog at Continuations.com and did a brilliant Ted X Talk here! Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Albert made his way into the wonderful world of VC?
2.) Albert breaks down the differences between the instalment and the deployment phases of technology? At what stage USV choose to invest and why?
3.) How much of a role does valuation play in Albert's investment decision making process? At what level does speculation become irrational exuberance?
4.) Why does Albert want to limit network effects that are provided to winning companies? What does Albert think makes a contestable market? What are the characteristics?
5.) Why is Albert such a protagonist for the basic income guarantee? What are the challenges? How will this affect human's relationship to automation? What will mankind do with this increased abundance of time?
6.) Why does Albert believe that every individual has the right to be presented by a personal bot? What are the prominent use cases? How does it invert the power relationships between networks and their participants?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Albert's Fave Book: Beginning of Infinity
Albert's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Azeem Azhar: The Exponential View
Albert's Most Recent Investment: Clue: Period and Ovulation Tracker
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Albert on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!
This episode was brought to you …
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20VC: When To Transition From Growth to Profitability & The KPI's of The On Demand Economy with Frank Mycroft @ Booster Fuels
8 juli 2016 · 29 min
Frank Mycroft is the Founder & CEO @ Booster Fuels, the on-demand fuel delivery service backed by the likes of our friends at Maveron and Version One. As for Frank himself, he is literally a former rocket scientist with Nasa and has more degrees that I have done podcast episodes, making him one of the smartest guests we have ever had on the show. Directly prior to Booster Fuels, Frank was the VP of Strategy @ Planetary Resources, the Redmond based, asteroid mining company. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Frank came to Found Booster Fuels from his days with Nasa?
2.) How important a role does naivety play for founders starting building their company?
3.) With Fuel being such a low margin business, how does Frank balance growth vs profitability with Booster Fuels? What are the tips for doing so in the on-demand economy?
4.) When is the transition point between growth at all costs to focusing on profitability and unit economics?
5.) To what extent is regulation a limiting factor for the growth of Booster fuels?
6.) Question from Dave Wu @ Maveron: What did Frank look for in his Series A investors? Question from Angela @ Version One: What is Frank's wider vision for the future of on demand and Booster Fuels?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Frank's Fave Book: Oh The Places You'll Go
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Frank on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!
This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to designers from around the world.
How Does It Work?
Once you have launched your brief, designers will begin submitting quality designs for you to review. With some constructive feedback, you can quickly generate a large gallery of designs that really do fit your needs. …
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20VC: What It Takes To Raise A VC Fund & Investing in First Time Fund Managers with Michael Kim @ Cendana Capital
6 juli 2016 · 28 min
Michael Kim is the founder and Managing Partner of Cendana Capital, a fund of funds which invests in seed VC funds. Michael has many of our previous guests in his portfolio including the likes of SoftTech, Freestyle, Founder Collective, Collaborative Fund and many more, clearly great minds think alike! Prior to Cendana, Michael was one of the original partners of Rustic Canyon Partners a VC firm with $1bn AUM. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Michael made his way into VC and then made the transition into the world of LP?
2.) Why have we seen the proliferation of seed funding? Is this a good thing for the economy? Is dumb money good or bad for the early stage environment?
3.) Chris Douvos states we will begin to see the hybridisation of LPs and GPs, does Michael agree? What are the inherent problems with this happening?
4.) What is Michael's blackbox for assessing emerging fund managers? What does he look for? How can they present their edge?
4.) How does Michael respond to Dave McClure's portfolio construction theory of allocating capital to many startups with the realisation that 0.5% become unicorns?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Michael's Fave Book: Catcher & The Rye
Michael's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Techcrunch, The Twenty Minute VC
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Michael on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!
This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to designers from around the world.
How Does It Work?
Once you have launched your brief, designers will begin submitting quality designs for you to review. With some constructive feedback, you can quickly generate a large gallery of designs that really do fit your needs. You can have exactly what you need with…
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20VC: The 4 Required Powers For A Startup To Be A $500m Business with "The Most Powerful Woman in Startups", Ann Miura Ko, Co-Founder @ Floodgate
4 juli 2016 · 33 min
Ann Miura-Ko has been called "the most powerful woman in startups" by Forbes and is the Co-Founder of Floodgate, one of the valley's leading early stage funds with investments in the likes of Twitter, Twitch and TaskRabbit. Some of Ann's investments at Floodgate include Lyft, Ayasdi, Xamarin, Refinery29, Chloe and Isabel, Maker Media, Wanelo, TaskRabbit, and Modcloth. Ann is also a lecturer in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, where she got her PhD focused on mathematical modeling of computer security. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Ann made her way into the wonderful world of VC?
2.) Ann's 2nd day in VC was 9/11, how does Ann view investing in times of crisis and downturn? How does this effect the macro-economy and her investing cadence?
Floodgate state that all venture bankable high growth companies share 4 very common characteristics with regards to power. Here we break them down:
Proprietary Power: What is it? What are it's characteristics?
Product Power: What does this imply about product market fit? What are the nuances and complexities?
Company Power: What does it take to be created and maintained? How have so many unicorns established themselves without credible and sustainable business models?
Category Power: Why it is so important to create a new category? How can this be done and who has done it well in the past?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Ann's Fave Book: The Poisonwood Bible
Ann's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Benedict Evans
Ann's Most Recent Investment: The Greatist
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Ann on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!
This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to designers from around the world.
How Does It W…
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20VC: Why Great VCs Know The Opportunity In Hardware, Physical Stores Will Not Disappear and The Importance of Consumer Brand with Josh Udashkin @ Raden
1 juli 2016 · 28 min
Josh Udashkin is the Founder and CEO @ Raden, essentially making the unsexy sexy with a design-forward app-connected piece of luggage that provides a superior end-to-end travel experience. Prior to founding Raden, Udashkin practiced law and did international development for Canadian shoe company, Aldo. To date, Raden have raised funds from our friends @ First Round Capital, Lerer Hippeau, Pritzker Group and many more incredible investors. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Josh came to found Raden and what the a-ha moment was for him?
2.) Why does Josh believe in the benefits of the dual approach to selling both being online and with physical retail stores?
3.) Why have we seen such innovation in the space in the last 30 years? The incumbents have said, they are bad at selling online, what are they doing wrong? What is Josh doing to optimise the process?
4.) Why is Josh bullish on omni-channel retail? What are the benefits?
5.) How are hardware products innovating on the hardware as a service model and integrating physical retail products with superior mobile experiences?
6.) What trends have we seen in investing in hardware products in the last 5 years or so? Why is hardware becoming more attractive an investment field?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Josh's Fave Book: Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE
Josh's Fave Blog: Business of Fashion
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC and Harry on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
If you are looking to make your move into the world of VC or improve your investing skills, Venture Capital Unlocked: Secrets of Silicon Valley Investing is a must! It is a 2 week crash course at Stanford run by Stanford Professional Development Centre and 500 Startups. You will learn the mechanics of all things Silicon Valley investing, check it out here.
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa.…
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20VC: Felicis' Wesley Chan on The Rise of IoT, Getting Recruited by Larry Page & Creating Google's Biggest Success Disaster
29 juni 2016 · 32 min
Wesley Chan is a Manging Director @ Felicis Ventures where he has led investments in the likes of Canva, Flexport and Luma, just to name a few. Prior to Felicis, Wesley was a General Partner @ Google Ventures. Before Google Ventures he was an early employee at Google, where he founded and launched Google Analytics and Google Voice, resulting in his being awarded Google's Founders Award–the company's most prestigious recognition–for leading the development of Google's early client efforts, which led to the development of Google Chrome. Fun fact about Wesley he is a massive hacker and IOT enthusiast with over 100 connected devices in his home. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Wesley made the transition from Foundering Google Voice and analytics to being a VC?
2.) What were Wesley's biggest takeaways from leading investment at Google Ventures? When looking at his investment in Nest, what makes Nest such a truly phenomenal connected device?
3.) Wesley previously said, 'I look for patterns similar to Google Analytics in how if you build something great.' What are those patterns and what does that thought process lead to in terms of thought outcome? What is a good example of this?
4.) Where does Wesley think we are on the programmable interface element of consumer hardware? What would he like to see change or improve in the space?
5.) How has Wesley seen the investor sentiment to hardware change over the last decade? What have been the rivers in the rising positivity of investing in hardware?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Wesley's Fave Book: The Big Short
Wesley's Most Recent Investment: Luma
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Wesley on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!
If you are looking to make your move into the world of VC or improve your investing skills, Venture Capital Unlocked: Secrets of Silicon Valley Investing is a…
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20VC: Techstars Founder, David Cohen on Scaling Techstars Ventures and Investing In Uber, Twilio and Sendgrid
27 juni 2016 · 27 min
David Cohen is the founder and managing partner at Techstars, so a few amazing stats on techstars first, they have a total of 762 companies of which 90% are active or have been acquired, having raised more than 2bn in funding, as for David he is a serial entrepreneur having founded Pinpoint Technologies which was acquired by ZOLL Medical Corporation in 1999. and David was also the founder and CEO of earFeeder.com, a music service which was sold to SonicSwap.com in 2006. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How David made the transition from Founder to VC with Techstars and Fund I?
2.) Fund I is one of the most successful funds in history; what was the structure with Fund I? Why did David choose a $5m fund size? How did he decide initial to follow on ratio?
3.) Why was David so valuation sensitive with Fund I? Why was David so rigid on a consistent cheque size on Fund I?
4.) Why did David decide to expand from being a solo GP fund? What are the challenges and complexities of fund scaling and did David approach this?
5.) Question from Ari Newman: What does David think about uncapped notes? Why does David like big boring companies? Brett Jackson: How did you meet Ryan Graves @ Uber and how did the Uber deal come about? Jason Seats: Where does David still see inefficiencies in the current venture model?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
David's Fave Book: The Soul Of Money
David's Fave Blog: Mattermark Daily
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and David on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!
If you are looking to make your move into the world of VC or improve your investing skills, Venture Capital Unlocked: Secrets of Silicon Valley Investing is a must! It is a 2 week crash course at Stanford run by Stanford Professional Development Centre and 500 Startups. You will learn the mechanics of all things Silicon Valley investing, check it out here…
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20VC: X.ai's Dennis Mortensen on Why There Is No Incumbency Advantage in Artificial Intelligence
24 juni 2016 · 31 min
Dennis Mortensen is the CEO and Founder of X.ai, the artificial intelligence driven personal assistant that lets people schedule meetings using plain English and nothing more than a CC to amy@x.ai. Their female persona Amy is so lifelike that users have asked her on a date at a rate of one request per month! X.ai is now one of the best funded AI startups having raised over $30m from our friends at FirstMark and a big thanks to Matt Turck for making the intro and from DCM, who also helped us with some of the questions for Dennis! Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Dennis came to found X.ai and what the a-ha moment was for him?
2.) What did the training look like for X.ai? How long did it take? How much data did you have to painstakingly annotate? What is more important; data or algorithms?
3.) Many VCs are concerned about large incumbents having proprietary data sets. Does this concern Dennis and what can be done to mitigate this
4.) Question from David Cheg @ DCM: How will AI startups interact with giant corporates also investing heavily in AI research?
5.) How was the fundraising journey for Dennis? How did he approach it strategically? What challenges did he face? How did he go about choosing his investors?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Dennis' Fave Book: How To Get Rich by Felix Dennis
Dennis' Fave Blog: Wait But Why
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Dennis on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
If you are looking to make your move into the world of VC or improve your investing skills, Venture Capital Unlocked: Secrets of Silicon Valley Investing is a must! It is a 2 week crash course at Stanford run by Stanford Professional Development Centre and 500 Startups. You will learn the mechanics of all things Silicon Valley investing, check it out here.
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa. Lees is like the TO…
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20VC: Why Bots Are The New Black, Conversational Interface Is The Next of For Consumerisation and The Determinants Of A Successful Marketplace with Annie Kadavy, General Partner @ CRV
22 juni 2016 · 32 min
Annie Kadavy is a General Partner @ Charles River Ventures. The prestigious VC fund that is now on it's 16th fund and has backed the likes of Twitter, Yammer and Mailbox just to name a few. At CRV, Annie focuses on all things consumer and has either led or sourced their investments in ClassPass, Cratejoy, Patreon, Laurel & Wolf and DoorDash. Prior to CRV, Annie spent time with SV Angel and Warby Parker. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Annie made her way into the world of VC?
2.)Why have we seen the explosion of marketplaces in recent years? What are the inherent challenges of two sided marketplaces; typically consumers and micro-entrepreneurs? Does Annie agree with Jeff Jordan in stating that these marketplaces need to nurture and manage conditions of perfect competition?
3.) What are the core components to growing traditional producer consumer marketplaces? How do they broach the chicken and the egg problem of supply and demand?
4.) Why is Annie so excited for the potential of bots? Will the transition to bots and conversational interfaces represent a major point of disruption or more of an evolution in the interface paradigm?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Annie's Fave Book: Mindset: How You Can Fulfill Your Potential by Carol Dweck
Annie's Fave Blog: The Skimm
Annie's Most Recent Investment: Roam
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20VC: Andy Rachleff, Founder @ Benchmark & Wealthfront on What Makes The Best CEO & Board Member & Why Ivy League Endowments Are The Best Managed Capital In The World
20 juni 2016 · 26 min
From 1995 until 2004 Andy Rachleff was a co-founder and General Partner of Benchmark Capital, who have backed the likes of Twitter, Snapchat, Dropbox, Uber and Instagram. Upon his retirement from Benchmark, Andy joined the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business to teach a variety of courses on entrepreneurship. In 2008 he co-founded Wealthfront Inc, the online financial advisor and investment management solution, where he now serves as Executive Chairman. In just 3 years, Wealthfront now have over $2bn AUM. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Andy made his way into the world of VC and what was the origin story behind the founding of Benchmark?
2.) Andy took the opposite route to most having been a VC and then founding Wealthfront. So what does Andy make of doing VC first and then becoming an operator?
3.) Why does Andy believe Ivy League endowments are the best managed pools of capital? What do they do well and what separates the good from the great?
4.) Andy has worked with some of the world's best CEO's and board members, so what makes the best board member and what makes the best CEO?
5.) How has Andy seen the VC industry evolve and develop over the last 20 years? How has Andy seen his own investment decision making process and patter recognition alter over that time?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Andy's Fave Book: The Innovator's Dilemma
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Andy on Twitter here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena, design to keep you cool…
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20VC: Raising $150m, Meeting Yuri Milner & Revolutionising Mobile Finance with Sasha Orloff @ LendUp
17 juni 2016 · 25 min
Sasha Orloff is the CEO and Co-founder of LendUp, a fintech startup offering online and mobile personal loans and credit cards in the United States. Prior to launching LendUp Sasha was on the other side of the table as a VC with Citi Group's corporate venture capital arm. On the topic of VC funding, LendUp raised an incredible $150m in Jan 2016 from likes of SV Angel, Yuri Milner our friends at Susa and Google Ventures just to name a few. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Sasha come to found LendUp following a stint in VC with Citi Group?
2.) What Sasha learnt from VC about running a successful startup and how he applied them to his founding of LendUp?
3.) Was it difficult leaving the security of a VC job to found a startup? Would you have done the same had you had children at the time?
4.) What trends in FinTech is Sasha most excited for? Why does Sasha think banks are in so much trouble? Is there the potential to co-operate rather than replace banks?
5.) How was the fundraising process for Sasha? What was his preferred round and how did they differ from stag to stage?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Sasha's Fave Book: Banker To The Poor
Sasha's Fave Blog: Sam Altman
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Sasha on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena, design to keep you cool. All Leesa mattresses are 100% US or UK made and for every 1…
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20VC: Will LPs Replace GPs with Chris Douvos, Managing Director @ VIA
15 juni 2016 · 30 min
Chris Douvos is Managing Director @ Venture Investment Associates (VIA) where he is a member of the Firm's Investment Committee and has responsibility for the management of relationships with the funds' managers and its limited partners, as well as the identification and development of new relationships for the Firm. Prior to joining VIA, he spent time at The Investment Fund For Foundations (TIFF). where he was responsible for over $1 billion. Prior to that, Chris worked on Princeton University's endowment team. One of Chris' most notable investments is his pre-first fund investment in First Round Capital. Chris is also the author of the fantastic blog, www.SuperLP.com, definitely check that out if you have not had the chance yet. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Chris make his way into the world of limited partners?
2.) How does Chris respond to FOMO as an LP? Does it affect his decision making process? How does he look to avoid it?
3.) What patterns and processes has Chris developed to asses the ability of potential GPs?
4.) Is Chris concerned by the increasing time it is taking for startups to exit? How does this affect his think as an LP and cash on cash relationship to this asset class?
5.) In 2013, Chris aid micro VC was the most exciting space in VC, where is he most excited for now? Where will we see innovation in the VC market?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Chris' Fave Blog: RedEye VC, Tomasz Tunguz
Chris' Fave Book: The Great Gatsby
Chris' Most Recent Investment: Other Lab
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Chris on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online a…
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20VC: What LP's Want In VCs with Beezer Clarkson, Managing Director @ Sapphire Ventures
13 juni 2016 · 28 min
Beezer Clarkson is Managing Director @ Sapphire Ventures where she leads Sapphire's investments in venture funds domestically and internationally. Prior to joining Sapphire, Beezer managed day-to-day operations @ DFJ's Global Network, which had $7 billion under management across 16 venture funds worldwide. She has also spent time at Omidyar Network created by Ebay founder, Pierre Omdiyar, Hewlett Packard and Morgan Stanley. Beezer also runs the incredible openlp.com which is really opening up the world of LPs and if you have not checked that out, it really is a must! Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Beezer make her way into the world of limited partners?
2.) How do LP's find a new and talented fund manager? Is it a similar referral process as in startups with? How does the sourcing element of the LP world work?
3.) How do GPs raising a fund differ from startups raised their round? What are the similarities and differences in the processes?
4.) What does the investment decision making process look like for Beezer? Are their commonalities in the process of great LP's processes? What do you at Sapphire focus on when investing??
5.) At Sapphire you have extensively researched the formulas of what makes a great VC, what have been your findings? What are the commonalities amongst the great VCs?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Beezer's Fave Blog: Term Sheet, Strictly VC, The Information
Beezer's Fave Book: The Tale of the One Way Street
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Beezer on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress…
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20VC: Start Niche, Move Broader & Become Profitable Quickly with Melanie Perkins, Founder & CEO @ Canva
10 juni 2016 · 26 min
Melanie Perkins, Founder & CEO at Canva the disruptive online platform allowing anyone to create professional quality designs. They have over 10m users from 179 countries and have funding from our friends at Shasta, Felicis and upcoming guests Blackbird Ventures and Airtree in Australia. Prior to Canva, Melanie was the Fusion Yearbooks which she grew to be the largest Yearbook publisher in Australia. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Melanie come to found Canva, what was the a-ha moment for her?
2.) How has Melanie looked to scale the team whilst maintaining the same core startup values and company ethos? What are the strategies at play here?
3.) What does it take to grow in international markets? Where were the benefits of founding Canva in the isolated tech ecosystem of Perth??
4.) What did Melanie look for in her investors? As a newbie to the VC scene how did she approach the fundraising process and what would she like to improve on?
5.) How can products that have both a free and a paid model offer enough in the free version to entice users, whilst retain enough for the paid to justify the price?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Melanie's Fave Book: Designing The Obvious
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Melanie on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena, design to keep you cool. All Leesa mattresses are 100% US or UK made and for e…
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20VC: Spark's Nabeel Hyatt on Investing in Oculus and Cruise & What It Takes To Invest Ahead Of The Curve
8 juni 2016 · 27 min
Nabeel Hyatt is a venture partner at Spark Capital where he invests in entrepreneurs using that rare combination of design and technology to transform markets. He is currently on the board of Spark Capital's investments in Cruise (acquired by General Motors), Fig, Harmonix, Postmates, Proletariat, and Thalmic Labs. Nabeel was previously cofounder and CEO of Conduit Labs, which was sold to Zynga in 2010, where he then became General Manager up through the IPO. Prior to that he was variously cofounder, head of product, and CEO at a variety of hardware and software companies including MIT Media Lab spin-out Ambient Devices, Teamtalk (BSkyB), and Interphase. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Nabeel make his way into the world of VC?
2.) What are the biggest lessons Nabeel can apply from his time in the trenches to being a VC at Spark? How has his investment strategy and decision making changed over time?
3.) What were the biggest takeaways for Nabeel as an observer and investor in Oculus?
4.) What is the story behind Spark's investment in Cruise (recently acquired by GM)? How did Nabeel come to meet Kyle and the team? What was the product like? How did it evolve?
5.) What does Cruise's acquisition mean for the autonomous car industry? What are the inherent challenges for the industry as a whole? How will they be overcome and what timeline are you placing on the industry to come into fruition?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Nabeel's Fave Blog: AVC
Nabeel's Most Recent Investment: Fig
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Nabeel on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and shi…
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20VC: Spark's Bijan Sabet on Investing in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare & Why First Time Founders Are So Exciting
6 juni 2016 · 24 min
Bijan Sabet is General Partner @ Spark Capital where he primarily invests in digital canvases and online communities for people at work and at play. Bijan led early investments for Spark in the likes of Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, OMGPOP and Runkeeper just to name a few. Before becoming an investor, Bijan led product management and business development at GameLogic (acquired by Scientific Games), Moxi Digital (acquired by Digeo) and WebTV Networks (acquired by Microsoft Corporation). Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Bijan make his way into the world of VC?
2.) How did the Twitter and Tumblr deals come about? What made you say yes?
3.) Looking at Bijan's thesis, is it true that Bijan has a preference for first time founders? What are the commonalities of all great first time founders?
4.) Often first time founders nail product market fit but struggle to scale the operations to suit the growth of the product. How does Bijan as a VC lend to this situation?
5.) Does Bijan agree with Fred Wilson's assessment of the consumer downturn? Why does Bijan think that David must beat Goliath in the end?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Bijan's Fave Blog: Ready Player One
Bijan's Fave Blog: AVC
Bijan's Most Recent Investment: Lily: Your Throw and Go Camera
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Bijan on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena, design …
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20VC: inDinero's Jessica Mah on Why Angel Money Is Better Than Institutional Money and Boards Should Work For Founders
3 juni 2016 · 24 min
Jessica Mah is Founder and CEO of inDinero, which she started back in 2010 to help entrepreneurs with all their accounting and tax needs after going through the same challenges with her own businesses. Jessica has grown inDinero from zero to multi-million dollar revenues with over 100 full-time employees and has been featured in the Forbes and Inc 30 Under 30 Lists. The company has raised over $10M to date and is growing rapidly. Her goal is grow inDinero into being the leading accounting provider for businesses. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Jessica come to found Indinero, an SMB accounting startup when she was at University?
2.) Why did Jessica decide to raise funding from angels over VC's? What were the benefits of this?
3.) Why does Jessica believe that institutional capital is never patient capital? What additional value add do angels bring that VCs and HNW's do not bring?
4.) How does Jessica like to involve her investors in the hiring process? How can founders do this and why should they?
5.) Why does Jessica believe it is better to have a board that works for the founder and not the other way round? Does this not lead to conflict?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Jessica's Fave Book: A Guide To The Good Life
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Jessica on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena, design to keep you cool. All Le…
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20VC: The Future For Autonomous Vehicles & How Software Is Eating Cars with Nikhil Basu Trivedi, Investor @ Shasta Ventures
1 juni 2016 · 28 min
Nikhil Basu Trivedi is an early stage investor with Shasta Ventures, where he focuses on consumer, mobile and SaaS. Prior to joining Shasta, Nikhil was a member of the Insight Venture Partners team in NYC. Before making the move into venture, Nikhil co-founded Artsy in his sophomore year at Princeton University, Artsy now employs over 100 people and has raised over $50m in venture financing. One of Nikhil's main passions is self driving cars and so today's show will be centred around the proliferation of autonomous vehicles and what that means for us as a society? Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Nikhil come to be a VC in SF having spent his early years in the UK?
2.) Why is Nikhil so excited about self-driving cars? What is the enabler that is allowing this mass rise of the autonomous vehicle?
3.) What happens in a world of little mechanical engineering at all, where repairs can be achieved with software updates? How does this change the complexity of production? How does this change what the supply chain might look like? How does this change the capital structure required?
4.)How does the rise of the autonomous vehicles effect the sharing economy? Is Nikhil bullish on Lyft, Uber, Didi? With on demand, when will we reach a point of equilibrium when the supply of drivers that gets drawn in and the price that attracts consumers will be equivalent?
5.) Who is the leader, is this a winner take all, will the acquisition of GM and Cruise mean a dominance? Who has Nikhil been impressed by?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Nikhil's Fave Book: Leading by Sir Alex Ferguson and Michael Moritz
Nikhil's Fave Blog: Mattermark Daily, CB Insights
Nikhil's Most Recent Investment: Tally
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Nikhil on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker o…
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20VC: Is Big Data Still A Thing with Matt Turck, Managing Director at FirstMark Capital
30 mei 2016 · 31 min
Matt Turck is Managing Director of FirstMark Capital where he invests across a broad range of early-stage enterprise and consumer startups. Prior to FirstMark, he was a Managing Director at Bloomberg Ventures, the investment and incubation arm of Bloomberg LP. Previously, Matt was the co-founder of TripleHop Technologies, a venture-backed enterprise search software startup that was acquired by Oracle. Matt organizes two large monthly events, Data Driven NYC (focuses on Big Data and AI) and Hardwired NYC(focuses on IOT, AR/VR, drones). At Firstmark, Matt has made investments in the likes of Sketchfab, Sense 360 and the much loved X.ai with Amy Ingram as your personal secretary. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Matt make his way into the world of VC?
2.) What does big data really mean? With the cool kids in the data world moving on to obsessing over AI, is big data still a 'thing' in 2016?
3.) Why is now the time for big data? What has enabled big data to have sudden mass utility across a variety of applications?
4.) How does Matt view the integration of big data and AI? Is AI helping big data deliver it's promise?
5.) How can we combat the incumbency advantage of large companies owning the majority of datasets? How can startups access similar datasets?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Matt's Fave Blog: AVC, Chris Dixon, Brad Feld, Wait But Why
Matt's Most Recent Investment: Hyperscience
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Matt on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 uni…
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20VC: The Information's Jessica Lessin on The Future For Online Journalism & The Benefits Of A Subscription Based Business Model
27 mei 2016 · 27 min
Jessica Lessin founder and Editor in Chief of The Information. Prior to The Information, she covered Silicon the technology industry for eight years at the Wall Street Journal where she wrote nearly 1,000 articles for the paper, consistently breaking news about major products, management changes and strategy shifts. Jessica was also part of a team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Now you can follow both Jessica and me on Snapchat on @jlessk and @hstebbings Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Jessica come to found The Information following The Wall Street Journal?
2.) Marc Andreesen: 'print journalism is converging in quality and technique with blogs and Wikipedia'. Does Jessica agree with this? Has revisability has led to a lower quality initial publication?
3.) How does Jessica view the competitive landscape for journalism today? Who are competitors and what would Jessica say is complimentary to The Information??
4.) We have seen the decentralization away from the central forms of authority in journalism. What effect has this decentralization had on distribution? Competition? Market size?
5.) What is the monetisation strategy for The Information? Why choose that strategy over the more prevalent others such as advertising?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Jessica's Fave Book: Ben Bradlee: A Good Life
Jessica's Fave Blog: Doug Young
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Jessica on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive fe…
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20VC: Sam Lessin on Why Bots Will Change Business & The Internet Has Mostly Failed
25 mei 2016 · 27 min
Sam Lessin is a Partner at Slow Ventures who have made investments in the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Mattermark, AngelList,Dropbox and many more. On top of this, Sam is also the Founder and Co-CEO at Fin, which is basically like Siri Echo or Google now except it actually works, truly a phenomenal product. Prior to Fin and Slow, Sam was VP of Product Management at Facebook following the acquisition of his company, Drop.io by Facebook in 2010. Sam is also an intern at The Information where he reports directly to the boss Jessica Lessin! Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Sam come to found Fin and what was his route into VC with Slow?
2.) What are the fundamental shifts that have occurred in the world of tech? How has this affected the wider tech and investing ecosystem?
3.) Will the transition to bots and conversational interfaces represent a major point of disruption or more of an evolution in the interface paradigm?
4.) How can bots establish the same relationship and stickiness with the user as apps? In a world of bot domination where strong data sets is the ultimate weapon, are we not at a fundamental incumbency disadvantage? How can the platforms react to this?
5.) What will the effect of self driving cars be on society? How long before this was be possible? How does the sharing economy and capitalism survive in unison?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Sam's Fave Book: The Three-Body Problem
Sam's Fave Blog: The Information
Sam's Most Recent Investment: Common
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Sam on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your …
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20VC: K9's Manu Kumar on His Approach To Risk, Valuation & Believing What Other People Don't
23 mei 2016 · 24 min
Manu Kumar founder and Chief Firestarter at K9 Ventures, a pre-seed and seed stage micro-VC fund based in Palo Alto, according to K9 they invests 'frighteningly early' and like to be the first institutional capital invested in a startup. K9 is an investor in Lyft, Twilio, Occipital, eShares, and their companies have been acquired by the likes of Linkedin, Facebook, Dropbox, Paypal and more. Prior to K9, Manu was either the founder or co-founder of 4 companies, 3 of which with successful exits and the 4th being the fantastic eshares! Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Manu come to found K9 and what was his route into VC? How does Manu define entrepreneurialism and how did this play out in his early life?
2.) "The best buys are found in things most people don't understand or believe in." How does this play out in Manu's investment strategy? ?
3.) "The riskiest thing is the belief there's no risk." How does risk assessment feature in Manu's investment mentality? How does Manu transition this to your portfolio construction? ?
4.) Josh Koppelman states "What has to be remembered is the defining role of price." How much of a role does valuation play in Manu's investment decision making process?
5.) "An absence of losses can give you a great start toward a good outcome." As a seed fund how does Manu approach inevitable losses? How does Manu try and minimize mortality rate?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Manu's Fave Book: The Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll
Manu's Fave Blog: Strictly VC, Dan Primack: Term Sheet
Manu's Most Recent Investment: GradeScope
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Manu on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxu…
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20VC: Xero's Rod Drury on IPO on Day 1 To Hedge Fund to VC & Doing Startups Backward
20 mei 2016 · 23 min
Rod Drury is the Founder & CEO @ Xero, essentially beautiful accounting software for small business. Xero has received funding from some of the best investors in the world including the likes of Peter Thiel, Accel and Matrix Partners. Prior to Xero, Rod has founded and exited several successful startups including being acquired by QuestSoftware (later acquired by Dell). This success has led to a mass of awards including the likes of NZ Entrepreneur of The Year and NZ High Tech Hall Of Fame. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Rod came to found one of New Zealand's breakout tech startup in Xero?
2.) What were the very first days of Xero like? How and why did Rod decide to IPO from the start? How did Rod convey the narrative so well from day 1?
3.) What does it take to transition a firm like Xero from a 50 man startup to a 500 an company? What are the challenges? How do you assure a consistent hiring quality and mechanism?
4.) How are Xero doing in the US in terms of fighting Intuit? Is it a winner take all market?
5.) How was the fundraising process for Rod? How did Rod choose and meet his investors? What was important for Rod when making the selection?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Rod's Fave Book: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future
Rod's Fave Blog: Feedly, Techmeme
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Rod on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches o…
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20VC: How Startups Should React To Today's Funding Environment & Why Big Markets Are More Forgiving with Jenny Lefcourt, Partner @ Freestyle.vc
18 mei 2016 · 30 min
Jenny Lefcourt is a Partner @ Freestyle where she invests in early stage tech companies. Prior to Freestyle, Jenny was the Founder of Weddingchannel.com and Bella Pictures which were both acquired. During this time, Jenny raised funds from titans of VC including Kleiner Perkins, Trinity Ventures, Amazon and more. Jenny has also angel invested and advised some incredible entrepreneurs with the likes of Minted and Style Seat. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Jenny made his way into VC from founding and exiting 2 startups?
2.) What were the differences in raising money as a founder and as a VC? What learnings as a founder did Jenny have that have helped her move into VC?
3.) How have the large macro-economic changes affected Jenny's investing style? Has she seen a change in her investment cadence? Does Jenny place more emphasis on burn reduction now?
4.) Why does Freestyle not invest with a thesis? What are the benefits of this? How does Jenny make investment decisions going forward without a thesis?
5.) What does Jenny mean when she says that VCs suffer from duck syndrome? What can VCs do to make them the best and their founders life easier?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Jenny's Fave Book: Dreamland, Blinkist (Harry's Suggestion)
Jenny's Most Recent Investment: CREXi
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Jenny on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex f…
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20VC: Rob Go @ NextView on WTF Is Seed Investing Today and Why Raising Too Much Money Can Harm Your Startup
16 mei 2016 · 29 min
Rob Go is a co-founder and Partner at NextView Ventures, Next View are hands on, high conviction true seed stage investors. Prior to founding NextView, Rob was at Spark Capital and focused on early stage investments in consumer web and mobile. Before joining Spark Capital, Rob worked at Ebay as the Business Product Lead for "Finding". In this role, he oversaw the launch of major products that enhanced the search, browse, and product discovery experience for tens of millions of users. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Rob come to found NextView and what was his route into VC?
2.) NextView are seed investors but what does that really mean today? Why has the entire seed stage moved further down the funnel?
3.) With regards to runway, there are two side son the table, those like Jeff Clavier and I who believe 36 months is optimal. What side of the table is Rob on? Longer or shorter runway?
4.) Why are smaller rounds optimal according to Rob? What do they allow you to do that you cannot do with larger rounds? What does the rise of pre-seed do for Rob as a true seed investor?
5.) Regadless of label competition between VC is now larger than ever, what does Rob make of the personalisation of VC and branding tactics used by Mark Suster etc?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Rob's Fave Book: Ready Player One
Rob's Fave Blog: Wait But Why
Rob's Most Recent Investment: Dia & Co
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Rob on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
Attend one of the best conferences of the year, Sunrise, with speakers from the likes of Atlasssian, Canva and Planet Labs. Check it out here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order c…
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20VC: Creating A Competitive Process Between VCs & Having Bill Gurley As A Board Member with Aaron Hirschhorn, Founder & CEO @ DogVacay
13 mei 2016 · 28 min
Aaron Hirschhorn is the founder, CEO and "Top Dog" of DogVacay, the leading online and mobile pet sitting company. DogVacay connects pet parents in need of services with more than 25,000 vetted and insured pet caregivers in 10,000 cities across the country. Founded in March 2012 and based in Santa Monica, CA, the company has over 80 employees and has raised $47M from investors including Omers, Benchmark Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. Prior to DogVacay, Aaron spent several years in venture capital and technology, working at Monitor Group, Upfront Ventures, and Monitor Ventures. Previously, Aaron was an analyst at Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Aaron come to found one of the startup hits to come out of LA? In the beginning what was the harder element the demand or the supply side?
2.) How did Aaron know when he had achieved product market fit with DogVacay? What were the signs and how did he follow this up? How did Aaaron react to VCs laughing at his concept and how did he stay energised and positive?
3.) How was the fundraising process for Aaron with DogVacay and Benchmark, Andreesen and First Round? How can founders look to control the dialogue? How many investors should founders look to target? What makes Aaron want and not want a particular investor?
4.) What business fundamentally work in the on demand economy and what don't ? How should marketplace founders be approaching the issue of unit economics and should growth still be the priority?
5.) What is it like having Bill Gurley as a broad member ? What will be the enabler that will allow DogVacy to achieve that market penetration required?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Aaron's Fave Blog Or Newsletter: Bill Gurley, Jason Calacanis: Inside
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Aaron on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty …
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20VC: Why More People Should Be Entrepreneurs & How Do You Know When You Are Ready with Matt Clifford @ Entrepreneur First
11 mei 2016 · 27 min
Matt Clifford is co-founder and CEO of Entrepreneur First, Europe's leading pre-seed investment programme for founders of deep technology startups. Founded in 2011, EF backs the world's top technical talent pre-company. EF's startups have raised over $100m in funding and are breaking ground in artificial intelligence, robotics and infrastructure, among other fields. Outside EF, he is co-founder and non-executive director of Code First Girls and non-executive director of Techfortrade. Before starting EF, Matt worked at McKinsey & Co. as a strategy consultant, and studied at the University of Cambridge and at MIT. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Matt come to found the world's top technical talent pre-company programme?
2.) Should everyone be an entrepreneur? How can a founder determine whether this is the right path for them? Can entrepreneurialism be taught or is it an innate skill within?
3.) What does Matt think of the idea and fear of many founders that they are simply not ready? How do we know when one is ready? What are the signs?
4.) How important is mindset for founders? Matt has previously stated the importance of a growth mindset? What does he mean by this and how does he advise founders to approach this?
5.) What is the most common mistake Matt sees entrepreneurs in EF make? How does he help to combat this?
6.) What does the future of work look like? Where will jobs be at this century?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Matt's Fave Book: Sapiens (Same as Parker Thompson @ AngelList)
Matt's Fave Blog: Marginal Revolution
Matt's Most Recent Investment: Cloud NC, Third Eye
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Matt on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom …
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20VC: Raising A Solo GP Fund & Why They Are So Prominent Today with Charles Hudson, Managing Partner @ Precursor Ventures
9 mei 2016 · 28 min
Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner with Precursor Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on first check investments in strong teams developing innovative hardware and software products and services. Prior to founding Precursor, Charles was a Partner with SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed stage investors in Internet and mobile startups. Prior to SoftTech, Hudson spent time at Google, IronPort Systems, and In-Q-Tel. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Charles made his way into VC from working with the CIA? What were Charles biggest takeaways from his operational experience?
2.) Why have we seen the rise of the solo GP fund? What tools and services can be used by solo GPs to make their lives easier?
3.) Chris Sacca said, 'you have to be a moron to launch a solo VC fund'. What does Charles think about this and what was it about Precursor that made him want to leave SoftTech?
4.) How does Charles' market requirements change now as a pre seed investor, a 100m exit is excellent. Do you you still need unicorns?
5.) How does Charles look to differentiate with Precursor in the sea of emerging VC funds? What is the most important thing for him about pr-seed investing?
6.) What is Charles' vision for Precursor? What would success look like for him?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Charles' Fave Book: Alec Ross: Industries of The Future
Charles' Fave Blog: The Information
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Charles on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 uni…
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20VC: Why VC Is The Perfect Preparation For Founding A Startup & Changing The World Of Online Fashion with Chris Morton, Co-Founder & CEO @ Lyst
6 mei 2016 · 27 min
Chris Morton the Founder & CEO @ Lyst, the fashion aggregation and discovery app and universal checkout cart that has pulled in more than $60m in funding from the likes of Balderton, Accel and DFJ. Chris was previously in the wonderful world of venture himself as an early stage investor with Balderton Capital where he focused on consumer internet companies. Prior to that Chris worked on various projects from making custard suits to working in renewable energy! Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Chris come to found one of the hottest fashion startups, Lyst? What was the interview process with Benchmark like?
2.) Why did Chris become a VC first before an entrepreneur? What does being a VC allow you to become a better entrepreneur with?
3.) Chris has said before that we have not scratched the surface of e-commerce, so why have we not? What is the vision and what are the challenges that stand in the way? Question from Harry Briggs: Will we see physical retail stores largely disappear?
4.) Lyst place heavy emphasis on data collection and usage. Why is this? What does it power to Lyst to do? What interesting consumer trends and behaviours have been revealed from the data?
5.) How was the fundraising process for Chris? What did being in VC teach him about the process that he could implement in entrepreneurship? What were the challenges? What would he do differently if he were to raise again?
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Chris on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam…
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20VC: Accel's Brian O'Malley On The Prioritisation Of Growth, The Metrics That Show True Customer Retention & Why The Most Interesting Companies Create A Market
4 mei 2016 · 34 min
Brian
O'Malley is a Partner @ Accel Partners, where
he spearheads Accel's work with next-generation marketplaces and
consumer-focused companies. He led the firm's investments in
Amino, Gametime, HotelTonight and Luma, as well as disruptive
software-as-a-services businesses Duetto and Narvar. Brian joined
Accel from Battery Ventures, where as a general partner he led
investments in companies like Dollar Shave Club, BazaarVoice
(public), Coupa, Skullcandy (public) and TradeKing (acquired by
Ally). Prior to Battery, Brian led sales efforts and built some of
the first web service-based API integrations for Bowstreet, Inc.
(acquired by IBM). Lees meerIn Today's Episode You
Will Learn:1.) How did Brian make his way into one of the world's
leading VC firms? What were Brian's biggest takeaways from being in
the trenches during the bust of the dot com bubble?2.) What is the macro economic view to value compression?
How should startups being approaching and dealing with this?3.) How can startups maintain growth as the priority whilst
maintaining investor expectations on burn rates? What is Brian's
approach to the growth vs retention theory?4.) What retention metrics would Accel look for indifferent
products? How does this vary from category to category? What
are the commonalities Brian has seen in products that have insane
retentive ability??5.) Where does Brian stand on market size and the potential
for market transition down the line? Does the market even need to
be there today for it to be investable today?Items Mentioned In Today's
Episode:Brian's Fave
Book: Zero To One By Peter ThielBrian's Most Recent Investment: Luma: Fast,
Reliable WifiAs always you can follow The
Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Brian on Twitter here!If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with
many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the
mattress industry. Lees have done aw… -
20VC: Bessemer's Byron Deeter on The Commonalities Of Truly Great Founders and Learnings From Investing In Box, Twilio and GainSight
2 mei 2016 · 28 min
Byron
Deeter is a Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. Prior to being a VC,
Byron himself was a veteran cloud CEO &
Founder returning to venture capital in 2005 to lead
Bessemer's global cloud practice where he has been actively
involved with over 100 cloud investments representing a third of
the market cap of all public cloud companies. Byron has lead
investments in the likes of Box, Twilio, Intercom, Cornerstone On
Demand and many many more. Byron's pedigree is recognised globally
as he is consistently ranked one of the top global investors
across all industries. Lees meerIn Today's Episode You
Will Learn:1.) How did Byron make his way into VC from being a veteran
cloud CEO and Founder?2.) What are the commonalities angst the truly exceptional
operators that Byron has worked with? What is it that makes the
likes Aaron Levie so special?3.) We saw a $63bn drop in late stage SaaS valuations, so what
does this really mean for the early guys? In these markets should
founders be placing greater emphasis on unit economics?4.) With the increasing importance of customer retention will we
see further increased growth in the field of customer success?
How important is it really now for startups?5.) How does Byron define efficient growth, what does cash is
king mean? Where does Byron stand on the bottoms up sales approach,
is this the new sales method of the 21st century?6.) What have been the biggest takeaways for Byron of watching
Box, Sendgrid, Twilio go into hyper growth mode and scale into the
rocketships that they areItems Mentioned In Today's
Episode:Byron's Fave Book: The Everything Store
Byron's Fave Productivity Tools: Clutter
Byron's Fave Blog: Bleacher
Report, TechcrunchByron's Most Recent Investment: Rainforest
QAAs always you can follow The
Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Byron on Twitter here!If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with
many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!The Twenty Minute VC is brought to…
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20VC: Why It Is All Still About User Growth and How To Address Retention For A Consumer Social App with Mike Mignano, Co-Founder & CEO @ Anchor
29 april 2016 · 25 min
Mike
Mignano is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Anchor, the app that
allows you to share and engage with your network via audio,
essentially radio for the people. Prior to founding Anchor, Mike
was Head of Product @ Aviary, prior to it's acquisition by Adobe.
Anchor was one of the hottest products at SXSW this year and has
received funding from our good friends at Homebrew, SV Angel, Betaworks, Eniac
Ventures, Scott Belsky and many more. Lees meerIn Today's Episode You
Will Learn:1.) How did Mike come to found one of
the hottest new audio startups, Anchor?2.) Why have we seen such a
renaissance of podcast listening? Will this continue in the long
term future and if so, what will drive the long term future
growth?3.) How did Mike use the beta testing
phase to learn and iterate on customer behaviour? Following this,
how did he implement this feedback to create a community that could
be harnessed on launch?4.) When examining alongside Sarah
Tavel's hierarchy of engagement, how does Mike address retention
and the creation of virtuous loops within Anchor?5.) How does Mike fundamentally
attempt to menthes Anchor? At what level of growth can the cash
taps be turned on? How can Anchor be made to be revenue generating
for both the platform and content creators?Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Mike's Fave Blog: The Skimm
Mike's Fave Book: Cat's Cradle
Sarah Tavel's Hierarchy of Engagement
Jakob Nielsen UX Designer
As always you can follow The
Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Mike on Twitter here!If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with
many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the
mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress
showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam
mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your
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20VC: Why Every Successful Company Pivots and Good Companies Get Funded in Good & Bad Markets with John Frankel, Founding Partner @ ff Venture Capital
27 april 2016 · 24 min
John
Frankel is the founding partner of ff Venture Capital and
has been an early-stage investor since 1999. He has served on the
boards of more than 35 companies and has led investments in more
than 80 companies, including Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD),
Indiegogo, Ionic Security, Unikey, Socure, Skycatch, Plated, 500px,
Distil Networks, and Bottlenose. Prior to founding ffVC, John
worked at Goldman Sachs for 21 years in a variety of roles that
involved technology development, reengineering and capital markets.
At Goldman Sachs, he worked closely with some of the world's
leading hedge fund managers and developed a keen understanding of
emerging technologies and portfolio risk/return
management. Lees meerIn Today's Episode You
Will Learn:1.) How did John make the move from
Oxford grad to NYC venture capitalist?2.) How has the massive decrease in
startup costs affected the seed funding environment? How does
David identify the startups he invests in with the plethora that
are now available?3.) How much of an extent is portfolio
a branding tool for VCs? In recent years we have seen the rise of
the operational VC model with the likes of Andreesen, will this
continue as a prominent model in VC?4.) How as a seed investor does John
advise his founders when chasing a valuation that will only
lead to a down round? What is John's views on the dreaded down
round?5.) Many companies pivot in the
process? Does John like to see pivots? If pivoting what is it
important for founders to remember and focus on?Items Mentioned In Today's
Episode:John's Fave
Book: The Accidental SuperpowerJohn's Most Recent
Investment: Wade and WendyAs always you can
follow The
Twenty Minute VC, Harry and John on Twitter here!If you would like to see a more
colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you
can follow him on Instagram here!The Twenty Minute VC is brought to
you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the
mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattres… -
20VC: Europe's Youngest Series A Venture Partner, James Wise @ Balderton Capital on How To Get Into Venture & What The Future Of The VC Industry Looks Like
25 april 2016 · 36 min
James Wise is a partner at Balderton Capital, one of Europe's leading early stage venture funds with $2.5B in funds. The youngest partner at a Series A fund in Europe, at 29 James has already led on deals including the likes of Crowdcube, SketchFab, 3D Hubs, Sunrise and Workable amongst others. He discusses his unusual background, coming into VC after previously setting up and running a charity, why he thinks geography matters less than every and why he continues to focus on areas in healthtech and edutech as well as many other emerging sectors. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) As Europe’s youngest venture partner, is venture capital a viable career going forward? What makes James say this? Has there been a time when you doubted this thesis and why?
2.) So it is a viable career, where do we go from here? Why should we choose venture in Europe over venture in the US? What are the inherent pros and cons? Does James get the itch to head to the Valley?
3.) So VC in Europe is the place to be, so why did James choose Balderton? There are a plethora of great and emerging funds in Europe, what attracted James to Balderton?
4.) What does the next 10 years of VC look like? Where we are heading? Although a viable career now, will this continue to be with increasing power of crowd sourced financing and decreasing startup costs?
5.) What advice would James give a young individual looking to get into the industry? How can an individual show their passion and inherent interest for VC and startups in a tangible way?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
James' Fave Blog: The Morning Paper by Adrian Colyer, Nathan Benaich Newsletter
James' Fave Book: Score Takes Care Of Itself: Bill Walsh, Nick Bostrum: Superintelligence
James' Most Recent Investment: Magic Pony
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and James on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
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