The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
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20VC: Fundraising Is Also Business Development with Nicolas Dessaigne, Co-Founder & CEO @ Algolia
22 april 2016 · 25 min
Nicolas Dessaigne is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Algolia. Algolia are a brilliant case study for the successful pivot, having started off life as an offline search engine for mobiles but really took off by helping companies deliver an intuitive search-as-you-type experience on their websites and mobile apps. They participated in Y Combinator's Winter 2014 batch and raised $18.3M in May 2015 from the likes of Accel Partners, Point Nine Capital, Storm Ventures and many more incredible investors. Lees meer
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Jonathan make his way into tech and come to found the likes of Friendster and Nuzzel? What were his biggest lessons from working at Netscape?
2.) How did Algolia go about crafting their company culture and how have they approached maintaining it as they have gone into hyper growth mode?
3.) What des Nicolas think are the most common challenges with regards to the building and maintenance of a company culture? What pitfalls and advice would Nicolas give to an early stage founder looking to build that culture from the offset? How can investors determine the strength and sustainability of the company culture when viewing startups?
4.) How was the fundraising process for Nicolas? How did the rounds differ from round to round? What elements surprised or challenged him? For Algolia, an incredibly hot startup, how did Nicolas go about about selecting which investors to have?
5.) Talking of the highly competitive round and the very excitable startup community, how do you respond to all of this insane hype and positivity. How do you ensure that you do not fall into the trap of drinking your own cool aid and remain grounded and humble?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Episode:
Nicolas' Fave Blog: SaaStr
Nicolas’ Fave Book: Creativity Inc
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Nicolas 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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20VC: The Rise Of The Celebrity VC & The Pros and Cons Of Staying Private with Logan Bartlett @ Battery Ventures
20 april 2016 · 27 min
Logan Bartlett is an investor @ Battery Ventures, where he focuses on growth investments for B2B software companies. He is currently involved in Battery’s investment in Pendo and StreamSets. Before joining Battery, Logan was in investment banking with Spurrier Capital Partners, a boutique merchant bank focused on the technology sector. There, he sourced application-software deals with a focused on the marketing-automation sector as well as sales force automation, human-capital management, work management/collaboration, front-office analytics and data-services companies. Prior to that, Logan served as an investment banking analyst at Deutsche Bank focusing on financial technology. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Logan made his way into the wonderful world of venture capital?
2.) So as young chap entering the industry, I would love to hear how you have gone abut trying to build your brand and identity? What are the key personal marketing strategies for you? How important do you think the brand of the VC is? How do you address the juxtaposition of branding and marketing yourself and battery?
3.) How does Logan approach the deal sourcing aspect of the job? What is his approach to this vital thesis?
3.) Moving to more financial matters I want to address both the seed end and the later stage end of the market today. So starting with the seed funding environment, in recent years we have seen a massive drop in the cost of company creation in conjunction with a large rise in seed funding,. What is the effect of this for you as a Series A-B investor, potentially located in what some may call the funding gap?
4.) You are very much located in the B2B space, d I am intrigued wht kind of ARR do you look for at the stage you are investing and what price point per customer do you believe allows for that ARR metric to be hit within a reasonably short amount of time?
5.) Moving to the later stages of the market I have seen in a slide of yours from the past that you…
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20VC: The Best Determinant Of Product Market Fit & Why Prior Experience Is Not Required For Founder Success with Neeraj Agrawal, General Partner @ Battery Ventures
18 april 2016 · 27 min
Neeraj Agrawal is a general partner at Battery Ventures investing in SaaS and Internet companies across all stages. He was a founding investor in BladeLogic in 2001 and has invested in several other companies that have gone on to stage IPOs, including Bazaarvoice, Guidewire Software, Marketo, Omniture, RealPage and Wayfair. His current, private investments include AppDynamics, Catchpoint, Chef, Cohesity, Coupa, Glassdoor.com, Nutanix, Optimizely, Pendo, SmarterHQ, Sprinklr, StellaService, Tealium and Yesware. For the last six years, Neeraj has been recognized on the Forbes Midas List, which ranks the top 100 venture capitalists in the world. Lees meer
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In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Neeraj made his way into the world of VC?
2.)Question From Logan Bartlett: 'What is your thought process on what makes a good vs a bad deal? Also, how have you developed your ability to process deals and poke holes in logic?'
3.) How can early stage Saas founders determine the extent to their product market fit??
4.) What is it like to back rocketships like GlassDoor or Marketo and helping scale operations when you’re in hyper growth mode? Does Neeraj agree with Sheryl Sandberg’s statement, it doesn’t matter where you sit, as long as you have a seat on the rocketship?
5.) Neeraj previously stated in a Nasdaq article that it is all about the team and the market. So I am intrigued what are Neeraj's thoughts on VC founder alignment? Neeraj also places emphasis on the market, so how does Neeraj view the juxtaposition between current and future market?
6.) One hurdle preventing some companies from growth is the ability to attain later rounds of funding so as a largely Series B investor, why is raising a Series B so tough? Is it the embodiment of the funding barbell?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Neeraj's Fave Blog: Brad Feld, Jason Lemkin
Neeraj's Most Recent Investment: Pendo.io
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Neeraj on Twitter here!…
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20VC: From Netscape To Friendster To Nuzzel: Jonathan Abrams on A Silicon Valley Adventure
15 april 2016 · 29 min
Jonathan Abrams is the founder & CEO of the social news service Nuzzel. Jonathan is also co-founder and Managing Partner of Founders Den, a shared office space and private club for experienced entrepreneurs and their friends. Previously, Jonathan was the founder & CEO of Socializr, Friendster, and HotLinks, and a software engineer at companies such as Netscape and Nortel. Jonathan is a board member at Girls in Tech, an advisor to CodeNow, and has previously been a mentor in Steve Blank's entrepreneurship classes at Stanford and Berkeley, a top-rated mentor at The Founder Institute and a member of the advisory board of the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs. Jonathan is also an angel investor in over 50 startups including AngelList, Docker, Front, HelloSign, Instacart, Sapho, Seed, Slideshare, Socialcam, and Vouch. Lees meer
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In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Jonathan make his way into tech and come to found the likes of Friendster and Nuzzel? What were his biggest lessons from working at Netscape?
2.) How can founders determine the customer stickiness and value proposition in the early days of product testing with friends and family?
3.) How does Jonathan view the competitive landscape for news aggregation? Why is consumer app such a competitive space?
4.) Question From Matt Mazzeo: How does Jonathan compare this moment in time to previous points in the innovation curve?
5.) Having worked with both the old and the new guard of VC, how does working with Lowercase, Homebrew and Softtech compare with the old guard of Benchmark and Kleiner Perkins?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Jonathan's Fave Book:
Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure, Jerry Kaplan
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Jonathan 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 …
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20VC: Why Machine Intelligence Will Eat The World Of Software with Roy Bahat, Head of Bloomberg Beta
13 april 2016 · 32 min
Roy Bahat is the head of Bloomberg Beta, a new venture fund backed by Bloomberg L.P. Prior to Bloomberg, Roy was chairman of OUYA, a new kind of game console, where he was the first investor. Before that Roy spent five years leading News Corporation’s IGN Entertainment, an online media company with a monthly audience of 70 million people, a top 10 YouTube channel, and the leading website in its category in almost every market globally. Roy served on the board of Revision3 (acquired by Discovery) and was a board observer at Flixster (acquired by Warner Bros). Before joining News Corp., Roy was in the public sector in the office of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and at New York’s 2012 Olympic bid. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Roy made his way into the world of VC from working alongside Mayor Michael Bloomberg?
2.) What do all these definitions within AI mean? What does artificial intelligence include? What is machine learning? What is deep learning?
3.) When we talk about AI are we talking pure AI , with the likes of Watson and DeepMind or are we talking consumer centric software with elements of AI?
4.) With data playing such a huge role in the efficiency of AI, do large incumbents like Google and Facebook not have a massive advantage? How can startups get access to datasets? Is AI not fundamentally an acquihire industry?
5.) How important has open source in allowing and encouraging the progression of the machine intelligence ecosystem? What more can be done to further it's growth?
6.) With the rise of machine intelligence, what does the future of work look like? How will we live in a world where 47% of white collar jobs will be replaced by machines and AI?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Roy's Fave Book:
Watershed Down
Roy's Fave Blog or Newsletter:
Media ReDefined by Jason Hirschhorn, Asim Azar, the exponential view
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Roy on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more c…
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20VC: Felicis' Aydin Senkut on Scaling Felicis From $4m to $120m, Doing Venture Differently and Why Being A VC Is Like A Jamaican Bobsled Team!
11 april 2016 · 31 min
Aydin Senkut is the Founder and Managing Director of Felicis Ventures. An original “super-angel” investor, he was named to Forbes’ 2014 and 2015 Midas List and previously appeared as one of the top 15 tech angels by Businessweek. Aydin is well-known as an early backer of a number of iconic companies including Shopify (NYSE:SHOP), Fitbit (NYSE:FIT), Adyen, Clearslide, Credit Karma, and Rovio. More than 55 Felicis companies such as Brightroll, Climate Corp, Dropcam, Twitch, and Meraki, have been acquired by industry leaders such as Google, Amazon, Cisco, Apple, Microsoft, AT&T, Disney, Yahoo and Ebay. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Aydin made his way into the world of VC from being a Senior Manager @ Google?
2.) What does Aydin suggest to all those looking to make the move into VC who have potentially, an unconventional background??
3.) What caused Aylin's shift from angel investor to VC ? What was Aydin's investment strategy look like at the beginning and how has that evolved over time? How does Aydin look to differentiate Felicis from the plethora of seed funds?
4.) How does Felicis' stage agnosticity work in practicality for Aydin and the fund itself? How much of a role does valuation play in Felicis' investment decision making?
5.) Question from Rob Hayes @ First Round: How did the Rovio investment come about? Why do you say you are most proud if it?
6.) Question From Hiten Shah: How do you approach the topic of growing the organisation, whilst still supporting founders with the same time and quality?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Aydin's Fave Book:
Anti-Fragile
Aylin's Most Recent Investment:
Diffbot
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Aydin 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 th…
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20VC: Sprig's Gagan Biyani on The 3 Principles Of Fundraising and Building The World's Largest Restaurant
8 april 2016 · 28 min
Gagan Biyani is the CEO and Co-Founder @ Sprig, on a mission to build the world's largest restaurant providing healthy and sustainable food. Sprig has attained funding from the likes of Greylock Partners, Accel and Battery Partners. Prior to Sprig, Gagan was the Interim Head of Marketing @ Lyft, where he wrote the first Lyft new market launch playbook and launched Lyft LA. Before that Gagan, was the Co-Founder and CEO of the world's largest online teaching and learning marketplace with the founding of Udemy. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) What was the origin story for Sprig? What was the aha moment?
2.) Question from Josh Elman: What lessons have Sprig and Gagan learnt from Chipotle, both in terms of their growth and their food?
3.) What are the coolest things that Gagan has learnt about foods that have learnt and not worked from user and product testing?
4.) On TWIST Gagan stated that the food delivery market is a winner take all market , so what makes Gagan believe that and what will ensure that Sprig is the startup that will be victorious?
5.) How do Sprig address expansion theory? Are they the Uber or the Lyft in terms of aggressive market expansion? How do Sprig choose which new market to enter? Is there a scientific approach?
6.) From having raised 9 rounds of VC and angel funding, what are Gagan's biggest tips and takeaways to anyone entering the VC or funding process?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Gagan's's Fave Book:
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Gagan 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 do…
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20VC: Greylock's Sarah Tavel on What Founders Need From A Good Investor and Why Products Need To Be 10X Better & Cheaper
6 april 2016 · 28 min
Sarah Tavel is a Partner at Greylock Partners. Prior to Greylock, Sarah was a product lead at Pinterest. As one of the first 35 employees, her first order of business was to launch Pinterest internationally and close the Series C financing. Sarah then moved into product, becoming Pinterest’s founding PM for search and discovery, and launching Pinterest’s first search and recommendations features. She also led three acquisitions as she helped the company scale through a period of hyper-growth. Sarah joined Pinterest in 2012 after co-leading the Series A investment while at Bessemer Venture Partners. She spent six years at Bessemer, investing in a wide range of businesses from Quidsi to Cornerstone OnDemand. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Sarah made her way into the world of VC from selling ads in college?
2.) What is the deal sourcing story behind your sourcing of Pinterest for Bessemer? What made Sarah so excited about the product? At what stage did Sarah realise the huge potential Pinterest did have?
3.) How did Sarah decide Greylock was the right VC to choose over the plethora of other options?
4.) How does Sarah try and appeal to the inner founder? What does she do to make sure she is the first person they call? What forms of communication does Srah like to communicate with?
5.) What is Sarah's attitude to VC's personal brand? How has Sarah seen the personalisation of VC in recent years? Why the shift from blog to Medium?
6.) What is the most important attribute for a consumer product to have? Does it have to be both 10X better and cheaper?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Sarah's's Fave Book:
Creating The Kingdom Of Ends
Sarah's Fave Blog or Newsletter:
A Crowded Space by Josh Breinlinger
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Josh 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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20VC: Greylock's Josh Elman on Why We Are Not In A Consumer Downturn, The Next Wave Of Social and What Twitter Should Do Next
4 april 2016 · 26 min
Josh Elman is a Partner at Greylock Partners, which he joined the team in 2011 and invests in entrepreneurs building new consumer products and services. Josh specializes in designing, building, and scaling consumer products, having been part of multiple companies that have grown to more than 100 million users. Before joining Greylock, Josh was the product lead for growth and relevance at Twitter, growing Twitter’s active user base by nearly 10x. Prior to Twitter, Josh worked on the platform at Facebook and was an early employee at LinkedIn helping establish models for user growth and launched v1 of LinkedIn Jobs. Josh currently serves on the boards of Medium, Meerkat, Operator, Discord, and Jelly. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Josh made his move into the VC world from Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook?
2.) What were the biggest takeaways of watching fb, Linkedin and Twitter to hyper growth mode?
3.) Question from Jeff Seibert: What would Josh do with the Twitter product today??
4.) How would Josh apply his principles of the on boarding process to Twitter? What does he mean when he refers to the ladder of engagement?
5.) How does Josh respond to Fred Wilson's out on the consumer downturn? Is consumer really as hard as Fred makes it out to be? What sort of metrics really get Josh excited when viewing consumer startups?
6.) How has Josh's own investment decision making process been honed and refined since joining Greylock?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Josh's Fave Book:
Built To Last: Successful Habits Of Visionary Companies
Josh's Most Recent Investment:
Discord: Free Voice and Text Chat For Gamers
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Josh 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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20VC: RobinHood's Baiju Bhatt on The Importance Of Design in Fintech and Having A 10X Better Product
1 april 2016 · 24 min
Baiju Bhatt is the Co-Founder and CEO at RobinHood, the wildly successful stock market trading app with absolutely no commission fees. Since launching RobinHood there have been many amazing milestones including being awarded an Apple Design Award (first Finch company ever to achieve this), funding from the likes of Index, Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and even movie star Jared Leto. They were also nominated for best mobile app at The Crunchies by TechCrunch this year. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Baiju made his way into the world of tech and came to found RobinHood?
2.) How did Baiju deal with the regulatory hurdles heading into the fintech and trading world?
3.) How did Baiju go about building the waitlist for RobinHood to 1m people? What were the defining strategies and channels that made the difference?
4.) What is the thesis behind the design of RobinHood? Will this design enable previously untouched markets to tap into the growing trading market?
5.) What are the biggest challenges for Baiju and RobinHood going forward? What keeps Baiju up at night? What is Baiju's biggest piece of advice to a founder scaling their startup?
6.) How can early stage founders really determine whether they have product market fit and what does this look like? What re the metrics required to suggest serious traction?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Baiju's Fave Blog or Newsletter: TechCrunch
Baiju's Fave Productivity Tool: Slack
Baiju's Fave Book: The Case For Mars
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Baiju 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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20VC: 'The Best Seed Investors Hunt' with Paige Craig @ Arena VC
30 maart 2016 · 23 min
Paige Craig is a Founder and General Partner of Arena Ventures. He is an experienced angel investor who has invested in over 110 startups in the last seven years, including companies like Lyft, AngelList, Wish, Postmates, Twitter, Styleseat, Zenpayroll, Quizup and more. Paige spent the first half of his career in the Marine Corps and US Intelligence Community and later launched a defense contractor, driving alone into Iraq in 2003 with just $10,000 and expanding operations across the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Africa and Southeast Asia. Lees meer
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Paige made his way into the wonderful world of VC?
2.) What were Paige's biggest takeaways from his previous career in the military? How did this shape his investment thesis?
3.) Arena VC have both the fund and the AngelList syndicate, why did Paige choose this dual model? What have been the drivers of it's success?
4.) What does Paige believe makes a great VC? What aspects of himself would he like to improve upon? Is an inherent fight mode common among VCs?
5.) What advice would Paige give to someone looking to start a syndicate? What would Craig recommend to someone looking to join a syndicate?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Episode:
Paige’s Fave Book:
Ender's Game
Paige’s Fave Blog or Newsletter:
Mattermark Daily
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Paige 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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20VC: Homebrew's Satya Patel on The Key Components of Being A Great VC & The 3 Main Reasons Startups Fail At Seed
28 maart 2016 · 25 min
Satya Patel is a Partner @ Homebrew alongside Hunter Walk. Prior to Homebrew, Satya was VP Product at Twitter, building and leading the Product Management and User Services teams. Before Twitter, Satya was a Partner at Battery Ventures, where he co-led the seed and early stage investing practices. In 2003, Satya joined Google and was responsible for AdSense product management and partnerships. Before heading to Silicon Valley for Google, I worked for DoubleClick, in venture capital and as a strategy consultant. Lees meer
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Satya made his way into the world of tech and came to Partner with Hunter @ Homebrew?
2.) Is hustle the key component of a great VC? What does Satya believes makes a great investor?
4.) How can startups present emotion and depict their narrative to the VC? What are the benefits of doing so? What founder is most
5.) From Satya's experience, what are the most common reasons startups fail at the seed stage? What can they do to maximise their chances of survival?
6.) We always hear that products should focus on a niche but how then do you attract VC money that is looking for a broad opportunity that can return the fund?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Satya’s Fave Blog or Newsletter: CB Insights, Fred Wilson, Brad Feld
Satya’s Fave Book: A Fine Balance
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Satya 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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Immediately's Branko Cerny on The Rise Of Bottoms Up Sales and The Importance of Branding For Enterprise SaaS Companies
25 maart 2016 · 29 min
Branko Cerny is the Founder and CEO at Immediately, the mobile platform for modern sales professionals whose mission is to elevate sales back to it’s core foundation, a relationship driven craft. Immediately has some of the US’s finest backing in terms of investment with the likes of Naval Ravikant @ AngelList, Ryan Holmes @ Hootsuite, Jonathan Abrams @ Friendster and Nuzzel and previous guest Kate Shillo @ Galvanize. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Branko made his way into the world of tech and came to be CEO @ Immediately?
2.) How does Branko find being one of the youngest enterprise CEO in the business? What are the challenges and what are the benefits?
3.) What can enterprise companies learn from the likes of Tinder and Equinox? How important is brand building for emerging enterprise sales companies?
4.) To what extent will we see the bottoms up sales process continue in enterprise sales? How does this change Immediately approach to UX, UI and brand building? Why did Branko choose to focus on a mobile platform with Immediately?
5.) How did Branko come to meet his stellar lineup of investors? What value add was he looking for when assembling the lineup? Is he concerned by the large number of investors Immediately has at an early stage?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Branko's Fave Blog or Newsletter: First Round Review, Nir Eyal
Branko's Fave Productivity Tool: Intercom, Moleskin Notebook (Harry's Productivity Tool too!)
Branko's Fave Book: American Gods by Neil Gaiman
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Branko 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!
How many emails do you have in your inbox right now? A hundred? A thousand? The answer is too many. But here’s the thing—even though I knew I wanted to do something about it, I didn’t know how. It’s called SaneBox. SaneBox sorts through your email and moves all of the trivi…
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20VC: Maveron's Rebecca Kaden on The Patterns Of Entrepreneurship and Taking A Consumer Product From Niche To Mass Market
23 maart 2016 · 27 min
Rebecca Kaden is a Partner at Maveron where she identifies emerging consumer-focused entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, Southern California, and New York. Rebecca also plays a leading role in Maveron's seed program, where they partner with emerging consumer companies at their earliest stages. She’s a Board Observer at August, Common, Darby Smart, Dolls Kill, Eargo, Earnest and General Assembly. Her outstanding achievements have been recognised by Forbes who included Rebecca is their annual '30 Under 30'. Lees meer
As always we would like thank the awesome team at Mattermark for providing us with all the data and analysis for the show today, check out Mattermark search here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Rebecca made her way into the wonderful world of VC?
2.) Maveron have shown their belief in the consumerisation of IOT. What are Rebecca's thoughts on the space, how it is progressing, barriers that are preventing mass adoption?
3.) What is your take on the integration of messaging and chat with IOT? Whis there a recent broader market positivity towards chat interfaces at the moment?
4.) Maveron have also shown their likeability towards hardware investments so why is this? Why do Maveron not feel the broader VC market concerns of shipping, logistics? Are we seeing a shift in investing patterns in hardware?
5.) How do Rebecca approach the common problem with consumer startups transtioning from an early adopter market to a mass market product? What does Rebecca feel is the tipping point? What is necessary to make the transition from SF hipster client to everyone?
6.) What are the benefits are of having a narrow investing thesis (only consumer)? How has Rebecca found it? Is it challenging when finding companies you would like to invest in but are outside the mandate?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Rebecca's Fave Book:
Pale Fire, Vladamir Nobokov
Rebecca's Fave Blog or Newsletter:
Sarah Tavel, Brad Feld, Wait But Why
Rebecca's Most Recent Investment:…
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Uber's First Investor, First Round Capital's Rob Hayes on How The Deal Of The Decade Originated and Why Product Orientated VC Is The Future
21 maart 2016 · 29 min
Rob Hayes is a partner at First Round Capital where he opened up the firm's San Francisco office. Over the past eight years, he has led investments in companies such as Mint.com (acquired by Intuit), Gnip (acquired by Twitter), Square, Uber, eero, and Planet Labs. Prior to joining First Round, Rob became the first venture investor at Omidyar Network, the investment firm started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. While there, he led most of the initial venture capital deals and later built and ran the technology investing group. Before that, Rob worked at Palm, where he product managed Palm OS and started the company's corporate venture fund. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Rob made his move into the VC world from working with Palm in the heyday?
2.) Question From David Hornik : How did Rob's seed investment in Uber originate? What made Rob invest? Did Rob realise the potential for Uber when he invested? When did Rob realize it was going to be huge?
3.) Has the investment in Uber changed how Rob views seed investing? Talking of the Uber’s of the world, how do you ensure that you find and decide to invest in the next Uber, when it raises a seed round?
4.) In terms of deal closing, how does Rob approach that element of the deal and what was the competition and closing environment around the Uber deal?
5.) Question from Satya at Homebrew: Stepping back and looking at First Round, what has changed in FRC’s approach as the firm has grown? How does the firm think about managing generational transition?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Rob's Fave Book:
Travels with Charley: John Steinbeck
Rob's Fave Blog or Newsletter:
Dan Primack: Term Sheet
Rob's Most Recent Investment:
eero: Blanket Your Home In Fast, Reliable Wifi
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!
How many emails do you have in y…
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Pre-YC Demo Day: Msg.ai's Puneet Mehta on The Rise of AI, The Potential For Messaging and Life As A Current YC Startup
18 maart 2016 · 25 min
Puneet Mehta, Founder @ Msg.ai, an artificial intelligence startup for conversational commerce and for an AI founder you don’t get much better than starting your career at IBM's TJ Watson Center, which is exactly what Puneet did. He then went on to build predictive platforms to power large-scale trading systems aka bots on Wall St. It is clearly not joust us who think he is awesome as Advertising Age named Puneet to the Creativity 50 list in 2014, honoring the most creative and innovative thinkers and doers. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Puneet made his way into the world of AI and came to be the founder of YC's latest, Msg.ai?
2.) How has the YC experience been for Msg.ai and for Puneet as a founder? Have YC been able to keep the same quality of mentorship with the largely expanding number in their latest batch?
3.) VC funding is usually very available to YC alums graduating, how will Puneet go about picking his investors? What are the fundamental determinants?
4.) What have been the biggest takeaways for Puneet? What has been the highlight? What has been tough? What was surprising and unexpected? How did Puneet deal with the requirement for 10% weekly growth?
5.) Taking a step back now, Puneet has stated before about building the Turing test for money. So what does he mean by this and how does he look at AI as a key driver for conversational commerce?
6.) What is it about messaging that makes Puneet believe this is the platform of the future? What is it that bots provide that has never been possible before?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Puneet's Fave Book:
Peter Thiel: Zero To One, The Power of Now: Eckhart Tolle
Puneet's Fave Blog or Newsletter:
Paul Graham: Blog
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Puneet 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!
This episode was supported by Wunder Capital, the leading online in…
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20VC: The Three Fundamental Forces in Society with Ciaran O'Leary, Partner @ BlueYard
16 maart 2016 · 23 min
Ciaran O'Leary is the General Partner at one of Europe's newest funds, BlueYard. A $120m fund located at the early stage, centring around 3 key areas: The decentralisation of markets, the democratisation of capabilities, and the liberation of data. Prior to BlueYard, Ciaran was a Partner at Earlybird with investments in the likes of Peak Games (emerging markets social gaming), 6Wunderkinder (productivity apps), Moped (private messaging), B2X Care Solutions (outsourcing platform), madvertise (mobile targeting network) and simfy (digital music distribution company). Before Earlybird, Ciarán co-founded a startup and gathered operational experience at others. Lees meer
We would like to say a special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data used in the show today and you can check out Mattermark Search here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Ciaran made his way into startups and the investing industry?
2.) What is the thesis with BlueYard? What is the preferred cheque size, sector and geography?
3.) With the mass of VCs emerging, how can startups at the early stage determine whether a VC really is early stage? Are there any defining characteristics?
4.) For startup founders out there who always hear from fellow founders that everything is going gangbusters, how should they react to that? How can you determine whether a startup really is doing well?
5.) Say the startup really is going well and they are looking to scale and hire, we always hear we need a world beating, world class X? How can they communicate that hire better to their current team and their board? What should the CEO or Head of Talent be focusing on when viewing talent? Is there anything they should look out for in particular?
6.) Now when a startup really scales, board meetings become a big part of a CEO’s life. So how can CEO’s turn useless board meetings into very useful value added meetings? How can they optimize that time? What should they look for? What should they ask for?
Items Me…
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20VC: Lowercase's Matt Mazzeo on Being Chris Sacca's Partner and The 3 KPIs to Successful Investing
14 maart 2016 · 37 min
Matt Mazzeo is Managing Director at Lowercase Capital, alongside legendary angel investor, Chris Sacca. At Lowercase Matt leads a seed and series A investment strategy managing a portfolio of over forty investments including Uber, Twitter, Stripe and Optimizely just to name a few. Prior to joining Lowercase Capital, Matt spearheaded many of the digital and venture efforts at Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Matt helped shape the agency’s seed stage investment strategy and played an integral role in the founding of CAA’s incubated start-up companies, including Funny or Die, WhoSay, and Moonshark. Matt has been recognized as an innovative force across technology, entertainment, and advertising for which Fast Company named Matt one of the Most Creative People in Business. In addition to making Forbes Midas Brink List in 2014, Matt has been recognized on both Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 List in 2013, and The Wrap’s Inaugural Innovators List. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Matt made the transition from the world of celebrity management to the world of venture capital?
2.) How have we seen the personalisation of VCs in the emerging eco-system? Are VCs themselves brands now? How does Matt look to establish his brand?
3.) What are the required KPI's to make a successful investor? What is Matt pleased with in himself and what would he like to improve?
4.) Why will we see the decentralisation of VC away from the traditional Sand Hill Road? How does being in LA affect the operations and deal flow of Lowercase?
5.) What are Matt's biggest learnings from being partner with Chris? What has Matt founded the most challenging in making the transition from CAA to VC?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Matt's Fave Book:
Fooled By Randomness
Matt's Fave Blog or Newsletter:
Jessica Lessin: The Information
Matt's Most Recent Investment:
Mobcrush
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Matt on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful sid…
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20VC: Niccolo De Masi on The Bursting Of The Tech Bubble and What It Takes To Be A Celebrity Partner with Glu Mobile
11 maart 2016 · 40 min
Niccolo De Masi is the CEO & Chairman @ Glu Mobile, one of the world’s hottest gaming companies with title including the current No 1 Game in the App Store with the Kendall and Kylie Game, Glu is also the maker of the Kim Kardashian game and the likes of Deer Hunter and many more. Prior to Glu, Niccolo was CEO at mobile entertainment company Hands On Mobile and before that Niccolo was the CEO at London listed mobile entertainment company, Monstermob Group Plc. Lees meer
We would like to say a special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data used in the show today and you can check out Mattermark Search here!
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) What does Niccolo make of the wildly unrealistic pricing applied to early stage startups today? What will result from this incredibly optimistic pricing?
2.) If Niccolo were a VC today, how would he respond to the impending implosion of the early stage startups? What are the best VCs currently doing and what can startups do to preserve as much value as possible?
3.) How central a role does first mover advantage become in a down turning market? Will we see large scale consolidation and if so what will the effects of this be? How can startups position themselves to be the consolidator not the consolidated?
4.) How do Glu pick the celebrities that are featured for their celebrity feature games? What are the KPI's? What are the requirements in terms of existing brand and audience for a celebrity game to be a success?
5.) Why are women better at establishing larger social following than men? What celebrities would Niccolo most like to have on Glu's platform who they currently do not have?
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Niccolo 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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20VC: Christian Hernandez on The Importance of Mobile and The Relationship Between Growth vs Revenue
9 maart 2016 · 29 min
Christian Hernandez is the Co-Founder and Partner @ Whitestar Capital in London. Prior to co-founding White Star Capital, Christian worked at Facebook and led the international expansion of the company’s Business Development, Platform and Developer Network groups. He previously held leadership roles in the U.S. and Europe at Google and Microsoft and started his career in technology at MicroStrategy, a startup he joined prior to its 1999 IPO. Christian has worked closely with entrepreneurs and leading VCs and has been an active angel investor and advisor. He represents White Star on the Boards of KeyMe, Glow Media, Bloglovin’ and Hole 19. Christian also serves as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. Lees meer
We would like to say a special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data used in the show today and you can check out Mattermark Search here!
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In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Christian made his way into startups and the investing industry?
2.) Having worked with the likes of Facebook, Google and Microsoft, how has Christian seen the ecosystem develop; for both the good and the bad?
3.) Moving to White Star specifically now, what is the thesis, investment mandate? Average cheque size, preferred sectors? Geography? Talking of geography, WSC has a transatlantic model with offices in both London and NYC, why is that? What are the benefits of having this spread?
4.) According to Mattermark, White Star have 38% of your portfolio in mobile, so what are Christians views on the evolution of mobile? How does he respond to Fred Wilson’s post about the mobile downtown and the difficulty in attaining and maintaining traction for mobile apps? What are Christian's thoughts on discovery?
5.) Where does Christian stand on the relationship between growth and revenue? Are there any cases where it can be beneficial to focus solely on growth? In today’s environment, with VCs moderating their valuations more, is it possible to raise on pu…
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20VC: Tom Tunguz on Why Now Is The Best Time To Be Investing and The Effect of Late Stage Valuations on Startups
7 maart 2016 · 24 min
Tom Tunguz is a Partner @ Redpoint Ventures, where he has invested in Axial, Dremio, Expensify, Electric Imp, Looker, and ThredUP. Before joining Redpoint, Tomasz was the product manager for Google’s AdSense social-media products and AdSense internationalization. Tom is also the author of the world famous blog and newsletter which can be found at http://tomtunguz.com Lees meer
We would like to say a special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data used in the show today and you can check out Mattermark Search here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Tom made his way into startups and the investing industry?
2.) What does the huge drop in late stage saas valuations mean for the early guys? Does Tom expect them to hunker down? Take more time? Spend less cash?
3.) In recent years with the likes of Zenefits, we have seen the rise of Free Saas Enabled Marketplaces, why have we seen this rise, what are the benefits of adopting this strategy? Does the lack of predictability and lower (30%) gross margin not generate concern towards the model?
4.) Where does Tom see room for real innovation in SaaS? Is Tom excited about mobile enterprise?
5.) Question from Javier Soltero @ Microsoft: How have you approached developing your 'personal' brand and how that has made an impact in your development as an investor?
6.) Question from Eric ver Ploeg (episode 70) and Tak Lo (Episode 37): Where does Tom generate the ideas for articles and what does the idea creation process look like?’ What does the scheduling look like to churn our such high quality content on a daily occurrence?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Tom's Fave Book: Narcissus and Goldmund
Tom's Fave Blog: Saastr, David Skok
Tom's Most Recent Investment: Dremio
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Tom 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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20VC FF: Hiten Shah on VC Funded vs Bootstrapped Businesses and How He Decides Which Startups To Advise
4 maart 2016 · 27 min
Hiten Shah is one of the most prominent players in the data marketing industry having co-Founded both KissMetrics (raised $10m+ VC Funding) and Crazy Egg (bootstrapped), both wildly successful businesses serving some of the world's largest companies. Hiten is also an extremely successful angel investor with investments in the likes of Buffer, Mattermark and MessageMe (acquired by Yahoo.) In addition, Hiten is also a serial startup advisor having been an advisor with Linkedin, SlideShare and Wordpress' Automattic. Lees meer
We would like to say a special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data used in the show today and you can check out Mattermark Search here!
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Hiten made his way into startups and the investing industry?
2.) Why did Hiten decide to take VC funding for on startup and not the other? Did taking VC funding allow for much greater growth or make him less resourceful and creative?
3.) How have Hiten's entrepreneurial endeavours altered his attitude to investing? How does Hiten's large personal brand add to his investing style?
4.) Hiten has said before that he likes to ask founders 'what is their earliest most traumatic memory'? Why is that and what does Hiten learn from that?
5.) Question from Erik Torenberg @ ProductHunt: How does Hiten assess which startups he wants to spend time with as an advisor?
6.) Question from Ryan Hoover @ ProductHunt: What is the most counter-intuitive advice for this starting a company?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Episode:
Hiten’s Fave Book: The War of Art
Hiten’s Fave Blog: 731 Users Reveal Why Slack Is So Addictive
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Hiten 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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20VC: Building a Game Changing Consumer Startup and Hunting His 4th Unicorn with Jim Scheinman @ Maven Ventures
2 maart 2016 · 25 min
Jim Scheinman is the Founder and Managing Partner @ Maven Ventures, a leading seed stage consumer VC with investments in the likes of AngelList, WealthFront and Altspace. Prior to founding Maven, Jim was a pioneer in the early days of the social media revolution as Head of Business Development and Sales at the first social networking site, Friendster. However, in 2005, Jim left Friendster to join co-founders Michael and Xochi Birch to launch Bebo as the first employee and Board member. Bebo later went on to become a unicorn for Jim, however, that was not his only unicorn as he was also an investor in Tango ($bn valuation) and NBCi (IPOd for 6bn.) Lees meer
We would like to say a special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data used in the show today and you can check out Mattermark Search here!
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In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Jim made his way into startups and the investing industry?
2.) What was it like being in the midst of the social media revolution as it was taking place? How does Jim view the social scene today? Why does Jim think there is skepticism to investing in social?
3.) On consumer mobile Fred Wilson stated: ‘doing anything in the consumer mobile space is super hard. i can’t think of many consumer mobile apps that have gained massive traction and sustained it. can you?' So why is the space so hard? Is it not a monopoly play with the dominant incumbents?
4.) How has Jim seen the consumer landscape develop over the last decade with the rise of mobile? How can you tackle the distribution challenges inherent within mobile? Does Jim agree that with mobile consumer product market fit is no longer enough to gain a large user base?
5.) What are the core elements of building a successful consumer business? What are the challenges? Is there a pareto’s principle on this, with 20% determining 80% of the returns?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Jim's Fave Book: The Boys In The Boat
Jim's Fave Blog: Mattermark, Strictly VC, T…
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20VC: SoftTech VC's Andy McLoughlin on The Series A Crunch, Maximising Runway and Minimising Burn and For Startups
29 februari 2016 · 25 min
Andy McLoughlin is a Partner with SoftTech VC, where he primarily invests in B2B, SaaS, developer tools and mobile applications. Prior to joining SoftTech, Andy was co-founder of London-based Huddle, under Andy’s leadership, Huddle became one of Europe’s most awarded and well-known technology startups, raising over $80M of venture funding to date. Since 2010 Andy has been a prolific angel investor building a portfolio covering 35 startups, mostly in the SaaS / B2B space. Just to name a few of the investments from his incredible portfolio Andy was an angel in the likes of Buffer, Intercom, Pipedrive, Postmates, Secret Escapes, just to name a few. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Andy made his startup as an entrepreneur and then VC?
2.) What was it that made Andy make the move from the world of entrepreneurship to VC?
3.) As a seed stage investor, what does Andy make of the Series A crunch? How prevalent has it been for him as an investor? What is the optimal amount of runway founders should raise for?
4.) What does Andy think of the size and cadence of the first funding rounds that we are seeing now? What does he make of the rise of the second seed or the bridge round? Is it an indication of trouble?
5.) SoftTech are near the closing of Fund V, so what is the thesis and the mission going forward? What themes and spaces is Andy most excited by and why?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Andy's Fave Book:
The New York Trilogy, Hatching Twitter
Andy's Fave Blog or Newsletter:
Medium Newsletter, Mark Suster: Both Sides Of The Table
Andy's Most Recent Investment:
Captain401
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Andy 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!
This episode was supported by Wunder Capital, the leading online investment platform that allows individuals to invest in large scale solar projects across the U.S. Wunder’s so…
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20VC: Digg CEO, Gary Liu on The Rebirth Of Digg & The Evolution Of Content
26 februari 2016 · 28 min
Gary Liu is the CEO @ Digg, the incredibly famous platform that allows users to find, read and share the most talked about stories on the internet. Prior to joining Digg, Gary was an early employee at Spotify holding numerous positions including, Head of Spotify Labs and Global Director of Ad Product Strategy. Gary joined Spotify from AOL, where he was the Director of Sales Strategy and Operations at Patch. Before joining AOL, Gary was a business and sales operations leader at Google and Clickable. Lees meer
We would like to say a special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data used in the show today and you can check out Mattermark Search here!
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In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Gary made his entry into the world of tech and later became CEO at Digg?
2.) What were Gary's biggest takeaways from his time at Google and being an early employee at Spotfiy? How has he adapted those learnings to his role now at Digg?
3.) What really happened at Digg? What went wrong? Why did Digg not live up to the early hype of being the darling of the internet age? How are Digg evolving to change this?
4.) In the vastly competitive space of content creation and distribution, how do Digg stand out and differentiate themselves from the plethora of options available to consumers?
5.) How do Digg try to engage and unite the community through the commenting process without alienating people through the potential for malicious posts and trolling?
6.) How does a platform like Digg plan to monetize content with the ever disappearing ad dollar? Does it concern Gary or does he see potential in other avenues?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Gary's Fave Book: J.D Salinger, The Catcher and The Rye
Gary's Fave Blog: Jon Russell, Asia Tech News Review
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Gary 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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20VC: Investing In The Next Frontiers Of Tech & Harry Potter with Adam Draper, Founder & CEO @ Boost VC
24 februari 2016 · 27 min
Adam Draper is a fourth generation venture capitalist and the Founder & CEO @ Boost VC, a specialised seed stage accelerator that invests in blockchain and virtual reality startups. Before starting Boost, Adam angel invested in 20 companies including Coinbase, Plangrid and Practice Fusion. During his angel investment period, Adam was also the Founder of Xpert Financial in his aim to revolutionise the financial markets for private companies. Lees meer
We would like to say a special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data used in the show today and you can check out Mattermark Search here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Adam made his way into startups and the investing industry?
2.) Why is Adam so bullish on the topics of bitcoin and virtual reality?
3.) What are the fundamental use cases for bitcoin and why have we not seen mass adoption on a global scale so far? What are the barriers to adoption?
4.) What is the investment attitude to the bitcoin and VR space? Does the volatility of the price in bitcoin affect the level of investment going into the sector?
5.) What would Adam like to see more of in the space? What is he most excited for and where does he see the most potential?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Adam's Fave Book: The Name Of The Wind
Adam's Fave Blog: Mugglenet
Adam's Most Recent Investment: Joystream
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 Instagram here!
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20VC: Tim Draper on Investing In Tesla, The Best Pitch He Has Ever Seen & The Evolution of Venture and Startups
22 februari 2016 · 24 min
Tim Draper is the founding partner of leading venture capital firms Draper Associates and DFJ. Some of his Venture successes include Skype, Baidu, Tesla, Hotmail, Twitch.tv, and hundreds of others. Fun fact about Tim, it was his original suggestion to use viral marketing in web-based email to geometrically spread an Internet product to its market was instrumental to the successes of Hotmail, YahooMail, and Gmail and has been adopted as a standard marketing technique by thousands of businesses. His prominence is evident through his being named 100 most influential Harvard Alumni, and seven on the Forbes Midas List. He was named Always-On #1 top venture capital deal maker. Lees meer
We would like to say a special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data used in the show today and you can check out Mattermark Search here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Tim made his way into startups and the investing industry?
2.) Having founded Draper Associates in 1985, how has Tim seen the investing landscape develop over time?
3.) Draper obviously invests across a variety of stage, but what is Tim's preferred stage? Where does he see the most opportunity for venture returns? Why?
4.) Of all the companies Tim has seen, which was the best pitch? Why? Which founder inspired Tim the most? Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?
5.) What is DraperU? What are the plans for the future? What is the vision? Why did Tim choose to do a reality show in StartupU? Has it been a very different experience being the lead in a TV show compared to investing in startups?
6.)Why is behind Tim's immense belief in Bitcoin. Why is this? When did Tim realize the potential? How long will adoption take?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Tim's Fave Book: The Startup Game by William Draper, Michael Rothschild: Bionomics
Tim's Most Recent Investment: Laurel and Wolf, Favor Delivery
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Tim on Twitter here!
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20 VC: Niccolo De Masi @ Glu Mobile on Private Market Valuations, Being A Public Market CEO & The Trends Of Mobile Gaming
19 februari 2016 · 29 min
Niccolo De Masi is the CEO & Chairman @ Glu Mobile, one of the world's hottest gaming companies with title including the current No 1 Game in the App Store with the Kendall and Kylie Game, Glu is also the maker of the Kim Kardashian game and the likes of Deer Hunter and many more. Prior to Glu, Niccolo was CEO at mobile entertainment company Hands On Mobile and before that Niccolo was the CEO at London listed mobile entertainment company, Monstermob Group Plc. Lees meer
We would like to say a special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data used in the show today and you can check out Mattermark Search here!
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In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Niccolo came to be CEO at one of the world's hottest gaming companies, Glu Mobile?
2.) How did Niccolo make the transition from feature phone business to smartphone business with Glu so successfully? How did Glu's public market status affect the transition?
3.) How important is transparency within organisations as a leader, whether it be Founder or CEO? What are the important elements to communicate with your team and your investors?
4.) Why are private market valuations so misaligned with the public market? What will happen to the plethora of newly made unicorns?
5.) How does Niccolo source potential acquisition targets, what does he look for in, so called 'well valued assets'? What makes them well valued?
6.) What is Niccolo's turnaround strategy for his acquisition targets? How can Glu's platform elevate companies that are in distress?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Niccolo's Fave Book: The Rise and Fall Of The Great Powers
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Niccolo 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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20VC: Tyler Willis on How To Be Innovative With Customer Acquisition and The Future Of Innovation
17 februari 2016 · 26 min
Tyler Willis is probably one of the best angel investors around and has invested in seed stage companies that have gone on to raise from the likes of Index Ventures, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures and others. Some of these investments include the likes of wildly popular ride sharing app Lyft, the incredible Patreon (now delivering 2m a month to creators) and Change.org which now has over 80m users. Lees meer
We would like to say a special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data used in the show today and you can check out Mattermark Search here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Tyler made it into startups and the investing industry?
2.) Where does Tyler sit on investor specialisation? Is it best to have preferred sectors and round sizes?
3.) What elements are essential for Tyler pre investment and what can be tweaked later down the line?
4.) Question from Arielle Zuckerberg: How does Tyler evaluate customer acquisition so well? What is his approach to this with potential investments and portfolio companies?
5.) Why are people so negative on the future of innovation? Is Founders Fund's 'we expected flying cars and instead got 140 characters' fair?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Tyler's Fave Book: Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen
Tyler's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Mattermark Daily
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Tyler 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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20VC: Arielle Zuckerberg @ Kleiner Perkins: A Review Of My First 6 Months in Venture
15 februari 2016 · 28 min
Arielle Zuckerberg, Partner @ Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. Arielle Zuckerberg joined KPCB in 2015 and focuses on early-stage investments in the firm’s digital practice as part of the venture team. Arielle joined Kleiner from Humin, where she led product for the company’s mobile apps. She started her career as a product manager by day and Hackathon host by night at Wildfire Interactive, Inc., which was acquired by Google in 2012. After the acquisition, Arielle worked as a product manager on social ads at Google. Outside of KPCB, Arielle has made several angel investments across the food tech and health sectors in the likes of Partender, Bitty Foods and The Ticket Fairy, just to name a few. Lees meer
We would like to say a special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data used in the show today and you can check out Mattermark Search here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Arielle made it into startups and the investing industry?
2.) What has the move been like from angel to VC? What theories and investment theses are adjustable? How doe the fiduciary responsibility to your LP's adjust your risk profile when investing?
3.) Questions from Tyler Willis: How does Arielle evaluate new products? How does Arielle learn and how does Ariele come down on the learning curve on new things so quickly (new investor to KPCB in ~2 years, for example).
4.) Arielle has now spent her first few months in venture, what have been the biggest surprises? Biggest challenges? What is Arielle's fave part and what is her least fave part?
5.) How does Arielle see the AI space now? Where does she see room for innovation? Is there anything Arielle is concerned about?
6.) Now when doing research for this interview I came across Arielle's New Years Resolution list from 2012! So what are your new years resolutions for 2016? What are the goals you are aiming for?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Arielle's Fave Book: The Symposium by Plato
As always you can follow The Twen…
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20VC FF 035: Why Crowdfunding Is Not Right For Tech Startups with Ryan Caldbeck @ CircleUp
12 februari 2016 · 25 min
Ryan Caldbeck is the Founder & CEO @ CircleUp, the online investing platform that allows you to invest in innovative consumer companies. They have raised funding from some of the best including USV, Maveron and Canaan Partners (all past guests). Before Ryan founded CircleUp, he worked in consumer product and retail-focused private equity at TSG Consumer Partners and Encore Consumer Capital exposing him to many great consumer and retail businesses that were too small to obtain funding through the customary private equity channels. As a result, he decided to make funding available to these promising companies through CircleUp. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Ryan made the move from the world of VC to founding his own tech startup?
2.) Why is CircleUp marketplace investing, not crowdfunding? What does Ryan believe are the misnomers around the term crowdfunding?
3.) Where do you see this sector making sense and where does he think it is not so efficient? Why is it wrong for tech companies?
4.) One manjor aspect in the UK that this segment has struggled with is it’s ability to attract institutional investors to the sector. So with CircleUp, how are institutional investors getting into this market and is there anything more Ryan would like to see with this regard?
5.) To what extent does Ryan think this is disrupting private capital formation? Should VCs be concerned? What sector of the funding environment is most vulnerable to being disrupted by the rise of marketplace investing?
6.) How was the funding process for Ryan? CircleUp raised over $30m over several rounds with investors from our friends at USV and Maveron, how that came about and what Ryan would advise founders entering the process?
Items Mentioned In Todays Show:
Ryan's Fave Blog: AVC, Jeff Jordan, Bill Gurley
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 …
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20VC: The First Online Venture Fund Built On AngelList with Dustin Dolginow @ Maiden Lane
10 februari 2016 · 25 min
Dustin Dolginow is the General Partner @ Maiden Lane, the first online venture fund which uses AngelList as it's operating system, serving as the institutional capital partner to the best angel investors in the world. Dustin has made investments in the likes of Getable, PipeDrive, Beepi and many more incredible companies. Dustin is also a venture partner with Accomplice where he serves some of the best entrepreneurs on the planet. Prior to investing, Andy cut his teeth in the operations game with Social Swipe, which allowed merchants to gain more value from their transaction data. Lees meer
Click To Play
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Dustin made it into startups and the investing industry?
2.) What were Dustin's major takeaways from his operational experience and how has he applied them to his role investing with Maiden Lane?
3.) Where does Ryan you democratisation of funding going in the next five years? What direction does Dustin believe we are moving in?
4.) Dustin has said that 'capital is a crappy differentiator' so what value add should founders look for in their VCs? How are we seeing the VC value add evolve over time?
4.) How does Dustin sell Maiden Lane in the sea of seed funds that have emerged over the last few years? How important does Dustin think it is for VCs and funds to have personal brands? What is bigger the brand of the VC or the fund?
5.) What is it Dustin looks for in products? Are there any must haves? Any design requirements?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Dustin's Fave Book:
Development As Freedom
Dustin's Most Recent Investment:
AtVenue (Tom Williams)
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Dustin 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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20VC: Gil Penchina on Building The World's Largest AngelList Syndicate with Flight.vc
8 februari 2016 · 22 min
Gil Penchina is the Founder @ Flight.vc, a network of AngelList syndicates that covers a wide range of sectors from SaaS to security from Israel to England. Gil also has the title of the largest raise for an AngelList syndicate, essentially turning himself into a one man fund. Some of Gil's investments include the likes of Paypal, Indiegogo, AngelList, Linkedin and many more. Prior to his investing career, Gil cut his teeth with operating roles at numerous companies including Ebay. We would also like to wish Gil the best of luck in his nomination for Angel Investor of The Year at tonight's Crunchies by TechCrunch. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Gil made it into startups and the investing industry?
2.) Why did Gil choose numerous syndicate approach over one huge syndicate? What are the benefits of having numerous specialized syndicates?
3.) What is included in Gil's sell of Flight as an investor? What is the driving force behind the success of Flight? What is the biggest challenge within this job as founder?
4.) How does Gil try and convince the startups that the syndicate method of investment is better for them? How does Gil portray his value add to startups?
5.) Does Gil insist on pro-rata rights? Should founders always grant them to early stage investors?Which VCs does Gil like to work with and what makes them a good VC?
6.) Where does Gil see the future of first AngelList? Will it replace the archaic system of VC? What are Gil's plans for his syndicates? Is Gil looking to move into Series A and B rounds? How do you plan to become the Fidelity of this asset class?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Gil's Fave Book:
Ayn Rand: Atlas Shrugged
Gil's Fave Blog or Newsletter:
Nuzzel
Gil's Most Recent Investment:
Happn
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Gil 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!
This episode was supporte…
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20 VC FF 034: What Fintech Can Learn From Uber and The Shift From Financial Organisation To Financial Efficiency with Kelly Peeler, Founder & CEO @ NextGenVest
5 februari 2016 · 26 min
Kelly Peeler is the Founder and CEO of NextGenVest, the College Money Mentor for every student, helping students navigate the financial aid and student loan application process. While at Harvard, Kelly started Business Across Borders, a non profit that helps Iraqi students rebuild their own economy by starting their own companies and the International Women in Business Summit, bringing together top female college leaders. She was selected as one of the eight Kauffman Foundation Global Scholars, named by Goldman Sachs as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs, and named a White House #StartTheSpark Ambassador. Her TED Talk is called "How to Change the World as a Millennial - Don't be Stupid with Money" and can be found here. Lees meer
A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Kelly made it into startups and what was the origin story for NextGenVest?
2.) How has the Fintech ecosystem evolved over the last 5 years? What does Kelly mean by Fintech 1.0 and the next phase of Fintech?
3.) How can emerging brands and in particular fintech brands build loyalty with the emerging millennial generation? What is the attention graph for millenials looking like?
4.) What does Kelly mean when she states a shift from financial organisation with Mint to financial efficiency today?
5.) What key determinants that have made Uber so successful can be used within Fintech startups to build the same trust and relationship?
6.) What is Kelly's view of startups taking a platform dependent approach? What are the benefits and what are the concerns?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Kelly's Fave Book:
The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Kelly 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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20VC: The Evolution Of Mobile & The Importance Of Follow On Funding with Hadley Harris @ Eniac Ventures
3 februari 2016 · 25 min
Hadley Harris is the Founding General Partner at Eniac Ventures, the first seed stage venture fund focussed exclusively on mobile. Eniac's investments include the likes of Soundcloud, Airbnb, Elevate and many more incredible mobile first companies. Before Eniac, Hadley was a two-time entrepreneur in the mobile space, as an executive at Vlingo, acquired by Nuance Communications for $225m and after Vlingo he became CMO of Thumb, which was acquired by Ypulse. Hadley also worked at Charles River Ventures where he spent time helping with mobile investments while looking for a young startup to join. As if his portfolio does not prove enough of what a seed stage investing legend he is, he was also named by Business Insider as 'New York's Best Early Stage Investor'. Lees meer
A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Hadley made it into startups and the investing industry?
2.) What does an engineering degree provide when investing? Why did Eniac decide to focus solely on mobile?
2.) How has Hadley seen the NY venture and startup scene develop over the last years? Does an ecosystem need anchor companies to be great? Ex-Googlers, and ex-Facebook, ex-LinkedIn, ex-Sun, etc. are so important to the Bay Area ecosystem. What are New York's anchor companies? How has that affected the ecosystem?
3.) What is it like helping companies like Soundcloud and Airbnb scale when in hyper growth mode? At the seed level, how important a role does valuation play when determining whether to invest or not?
5.) Why is raising a Series B so tough? Is it the embodiment of the funding barbell? Has NYC, like London, seen a rise in the second seed round?
6.) What are Hadley's thoughts on VC founder alignment? What are the common characteristics of the best founders that Hadley has worked with and invested in?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Hadley's Fave Book:
F…
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Index's Martin Mignot on Sourcing Rocketship Companies, Evaluating Founders and His Attitude Towards Risk At The Early Stage
1 februari 2016 · 26 min
Martin Mignot is an early stage investor at Index Ventures where he specialises in SaaS, marketplaces and mobile. He is actively looking after Index's investments in Algolia, Blablacar, Capitaine Train, Deliveroo, Drivy, Rad, Swiftkey and TheFamily. He worked on 50+ transactions to date, including Assistly, Auxmoney, BaseCRM, Cloud.com, Codecademy, DimDim, Factual, Farfetch, Flipboard, Funding Circle, Gluster, HouseTrip, Just-Eat, Lookout, Nastygal, Notonthehighstreet, Onefinestay, PeoplePerHour, TrustPilot, Soluto and SoundCloud. Prior to joining Index, Martin was in the TMT team at UBS Investment Bank and co-founded the beauty subscription business Boudoir Prive (acquired by Joliebox/Birchbox) and a student web radio service (www.rsp.fm). Lees meer
A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here!
Click To Play
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) Where did it all start for Martin? What is the Martin Mignot story?
2.) How does Martin view venture as a career vs coming into it later on? Why does Martin think venture is now a viable career from the offset?
3.) Does Martin agree with Sheryl Sandberg’s statement, it doesn’t matter where you sit, as long as you have a seat on the rocketship? How important is valuation for Martin when making the decision?
4.) How Martin goes about sourcing the latest and greatest startups from the European ecosystem?
5.) How does Martin evaluate founders and consider their ability to execute on their plan, prior to making the investment?
6.) Talking of difficulty for startups attaining funding, what are your thoughts on VC founder alignment? You have said to focus before on the business and not the team, unless exceptional cases prevail, this is very strange for me to hear. Why is it you have adopted this stance and why do you feel it is best?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Martin's Fave Book:
I Have America Surrounded by Tim Leary
Martin's …
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20 VC FF 032: Jeff Seibert on Lessons From Being Acquired By Twitter & Box and Now Leading Twitter's Consumer Product
29 januari 2016 · 29 min
Jeff Seibert is an experienced serial-entrepreneur and currently Senior Director of Product at Twitter. Previously, Seibert was the CEO of Crashlytics, which he co-founded in 2011 with Wayne Chang. Crashlytics delivered crash analysis tools for iOS and Android apps via an SDK that reached 300 Million mobile devices worldwide. Crashlytics was acquired by Twitter in 2013 for $259m. In 2007, Seibert co-founded Increo and served as its COO and lead architect until its acquisition by Box in August of 2009. He subsequently oversaw the integration of Increo’s document preview and annotation technologies into the company's cloud-based content platform. Lees meer
A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Jeff made his move into the wonderful world of tech?
Today we are going to break up your story into 3 chapters:
1.) Acquisition by Box:
What was it like going to Sand Hill Road to raise in 2009?
How much runway would Jeff advise for a startup and how can companies know whether a strategic acquisition is optimal or whether they should continue building with a further round?
Jeff has spoke before about being overly transparent with this team about the acquisition. What are the problems with being overly transparent and how can you balance the two?
2.) Acquired by Twitter:
At what point did Jeff transition to thinking the acquisition by Twitter would be a beneficial and viable and why?
A reason for Jeff being favourable to the acquisition was Twitter's agreement of continued investment in the space. How can founders negotiate and ensure that this occurs with their acquisition? One of the mistakes stated about the acquisition by Twitter was the reporting structure. How can founders ensure that they are speaking to the VPs of engineering, CEOs etc and attain the support they need?
3.) Life at Twitter:
How life is following the acquisition? W…
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20VC: Lessons From Working with Chris Sacca, The Rise Of Mobile Commerce and Improving Push Notifications with Ellie Wheeler, Partner @ Greycroft Partners
27 januari 2016 · 22 min
Ellie Wheeler is a Partner at Greycroft Partners where she focuses on investment opportunities in next-generation commerce, consumer mobile, and associated SaaS solutions. Ellie manages several investments for Greycroft, including BaubleBar, Flashpoint Intel, Eloquii, and Plain Vanilla Games (QuizUp). Prior to joining Greycroft, Ellie worked in a similar role evaluating investment opportunities at Lowercase Capital with Chris Sacca. Before working with Lowercase, Ellie worked at Cisco where she was involved in multiple acquisitions and investments, including PostPath, Jabber, Xobni, and Tandberg. Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Ellie made her way into the wonderful world of tech and VC?
2.) What were Ellie's biggest takeaways from working with the legend that is Chris Sacca?
3.) As an investment focus of Ellie's, how does Ellie think the mobile commerce space has changed and how consumer behaviours are changing in the space?
4.) What are Ellie's views on push notifications? What are the Do's and Don'ts? What can be done to make push notifications more effective?
5.) Do wearables change the push notification space? What are Ellie's views on wearables with their investment in BaubleBar? Are consumers ready for them?
6.) Talking of wearables, how does Ellie respond to hardware investments? Typically a space VC shy away from? What are the problems for Ellie? What attracts her with hardware?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Ellie's Fave Book: The Power of One
Ellie's Most Recent Investment: Blinkist
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Ellie 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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20VC: Bryan Johnson @ OS Fund & Braintree on Investing In The Operating Systems Of Life & Why VC Should All Be Open Source
25 januari 2016 · 18 min
Bryan Johnson is an entrepreneur and investor. He is the founder of OS Fund and Braintree, the latter of which was bought by eBay in 2013 for $800 million in cash. Bryan launched OS Fund in 2014 with $100 million of his personal capital to support inventors and scientists who aim to benefit humanity. His investments include endeavors to extend healthy human life to 100+ (Human Longevity), replicate the human visual cortex (Vicarious), mine an asteroid (Planetary Resources), reinvent transportation (Matternet), and reimagine food (Hampton Creek), among others. Lees meer
A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Bryan made his start in the world of tech and how he has come to the OS fund today?
2.) What was the pivotal moment in Bryan's career? When was the turning point? What was was the hardest part of the entrepreneurial journey and how did Bryan conquer it?
3.) What is the main motivation behind the OS fund? Which areas does Bryan most want to solve and where does he see significant market opportunities?
4.) Does the longevity of return to Bryan's exits concern him? Most investments exit with 10 years, human lifespan startups take a little longer! What sort of time frame does Bryan have in mind when investing in these companies?
5.) What does Bryan really perceive synthetic biology to mean? Are we seeing improvements in this sector?
6.) The OS Fund have recently released a white paper detailing extensively their process for investing? Why did Bryan decide on this open source style of investing?
7.) What would Bryan like to see more of? Where does Bryan see a lot of people investing that he thinks is a mistake?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Bryan's Fave Book:
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage to the Antarctic
Bryan's Most Recent Investment:
Ginkgo Bioworks
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry an…
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20 VC FF 031: James Beshara @ Tilt on Crowdfunding For A Mobile World, Finding The Perfect Co-Founder & Beer Pong!
22 januari 2016 · 23 min
James Beshara is the Co-Founder @ Tilt the micro-crowdfunding platform that allows you to receive funding from friends—changing the way collaborative funding works. Tilt has raised $37 million from 3 rounds of funding from the likes of Andreesen, SV Angel, Alexis Ohanian, Naval Ravikant and Sean Parker just to name a few. As for James Before co-founding Tilt, he studied Development Economics as an undergrad and then went on to build dvelo.org, a site for crowdfunding loans and donations to poverty-alleviation organizations in developing countries. In order to vote for who you think will win James and Harry's beer pong match, head over to @twentyminutevc on Twitter and vote using our poll. Lees meer
A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here!
Click To Play
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) What were the origins of Tilt? How did James go from a micro loans collector in Africa to founder of one of SF's hottest startups?
2.) What does James make of the current crowdfunding landscape? What will it take for crowdfunding to go mass market?
3.) What are Tilt doing to make crowdfunding more bite sized and consumer friendly? How important is the on boarding process for Tilt? How are Tilt approaching customer retention? What are James' targets for the year ahead with Tilt?
4.) With investors like Andreesen, SV Angel, Naval Ravikant, Sean Parker just to name a few, what the investment journey like? I heard the first funding took 6-8 months and the series A took 6 days with a16z. What changed to turn it around?
5.) On PH LIVE James stated that founding a company is a destination less journey and although admirable I struggle with that from the investors perspective. How did James sell a startup in a pitch with no exit strategy?
6.) What was it that attracted James to the investors that he chose? What value add was James most attracted to?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
James' …
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20VC: James Cameron @ Accel on Building Great Startup Communities and The Rise of Enterprise and Cyber Security Software
20 januari 2016 · 27 min
James Cameron is an early stage investor at Accel where he focuses on enterprise software, security, fintech and marketplace businesses. Prior to joining Accel, he founded and ran BipSync, a SaaS-based research platform for investment management. James also spent time on the tech banking team at Morgan Stanley and as a corporate lawyer at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Lees meer
A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How James made his way into the world of startups and investing?
2.) How does James go about finding the needles in the haystack in the sea of amazing startups? Do James use data to find great companies? Do you think this will be a continuing trend, in terms of algorithmic deal sourcing?
3.) What cool stuff has James been seeing in the enterprise software and security sector? Does James think there are any underhyped or overhyped segments of these markets?
4.) One very dominant eco system for tech in general but specifically security is Israel, how do the UK and Israeli ecosystems differ? Is there anything we can do in the UK to harness the spirit encapsulated by the Israeli ecosystem?
5.) What are the catalysts or drivers of these communities’ growth? Do you agree with Marc Andreesen in saying we shouldn't think about building "The Silicon Valley of X" because the components that make up SV aren't repeatable and areas should instead specialize on specific verticals, like bitcoin or security. What do you think about that concept?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
James' Fave Book: Crossing The Chasm
James' Fave Blog or Newsletter: Adrian Colyer: The Morning Paper
James' Most Recent Investment: Doctolib
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 h…
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20VC: Fred Destin @ Accel on Why Startups Fail & Founders Get Fired?
18 januari 2016 · 40 min
Fred Destin is General Partner at Accel in London where he focuses on consumer and software investments. He is the lead investor and board member at Deliveroo, Pillpack (featured in ep: 89 with Eric Paley) and KNC. Prior to Accel, he was a partner at Atlas Venture where he worked with with companies like Zoopla (public), Secret Escapes, Integral Ad Science, Dailymotion (acquired by Orange), PriceMinister (acquired by Rakuten) and others. Lees meer
A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here!
Click To Play
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Fred made his way into the world of startups and investing?
2.) What is it like investing in rocketships like Deliveroo and PillPack?
3.) What are the reasons most startups fail at the seed stage? What are the most common reasons that founders get fired?
4.) Why does Fred believe raising a Series B so tough? Is it the embodiment of the funding barbell?
5.) What are Fred's thoughts on VC founder alignment? Why does Fred deliberately cause tension between a founder prior to making an investment? In what form does this take?
6.) When I asked Fred for topics he was interested in, he gave me a list and one of them, I have never had suggested before and it is ‘Why are VC’s so schizo’? What does Fred mean?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Fred's Fave Book: Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master & Margarita
Fred's Fave Blog or Newsletter: The Atlantic, Tech.eu
Fred's Most Recent Investment: Deliveroo
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Fred 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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20 VC FF 030: Gimlet Media's Matt Lieber on The Future of Podcasting and Life @ Gimlet
15 januari 2016 · 24 min
Matt Lieber is cofounder and President of Gimlet Media. In a previous life, Matt produced radio shows (On Point, Fair Game) and podcasts (Slate Culture Gabfest). He also worked as a management consultant at The Boston Consulting Group, where he focused on media and digital business. Then he chucked it all for Gimlet. He holds an MBA from MIT Sloan. Lees meer
In Today's Show You Will Learn:
1.) Matt reveals the origins of Gimlet?
2.) What were the dilemmas for Matt in raising Gimlet's round? What determinant made Matt realize raising was right? What advice would Matt give to founders who are unsure if they should raise or not?
3.) One of the main concerns with raising suggested by Alex Blumberg was that the company would feel like a totally different company, and by different ‘I mean worse’, to quote Alex. So how can a Founder maintain company culture as they grow excessively?
4.) Why did Matt decide to play it cool and not announce to VCs Gimlet were raising? Did Matt expect to get a term sheet as quickly and easily as he did? Were there any hiccups to the funding process? Were Gimlet tempted by any other offers? What value add about Tim O'Reilly made Gimlet most attracted to him?
5.) Question from Matt Hartman at Betaworks: How does Gimlet decide which new shows to create? Is it about creating new shows for an overlapping audience or to expanding audience demographics??
6.) Where does Matt see the future of podcasting going? Many do not believe in it’s potential to be a big business, what does Matt say? What are the challenges, what needs to happen to combat them?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Matt's Fave Book: Great Plains by Ian Frazier
Matt's Fave Blog: Stratechery by Ben Thompson
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Matt on Twitter here!
Likewise, if you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, follow him on Instagram here!
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20 VC: Investing in Hardware and The Future of IOT with Kate Shillo, Director @ Galvanize Ventures
13 januari 2016 · 30 min
Kate Shillo is Director @ Galvanize Ventures, a prolific seed fund which acts as the the investment arm of Galvanize -- a collection of "tech campuses" that offer coworking space and educational programs in order to encourage continuous learning and helping others to grow. within Galvanize, the organization focused on continuous learning and helping others to grow. To date Galvanize ventures have made an astonishing 48 investments in 2 years. Prior to Galvanize, Kate helped Ken Lerer launch Lerer Ventures, now called Lerer Hippeau Ventures due to the addition of Eric Hippeau who was only the show only recently, there Kate lead the investments in the likes of Venmo and Paperless Post. Lees meer
A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Kate made her way into the world of startups and investing?
2.) What were the biggest takeaways from Kate's time at Lerer Hippeau Ventures and working with the amazing Ken Lerer?
3.) What was it about Galvanize that made Kate leave LHV and Kate provides a brief synopsis on Galvanize Ventures? Sectors? Stage? Geography?
4.) With 42 investments since Feb 2014. What is the strategy at Galvanize? Galvanize's sector weighting is largest in mobile, how does Kate view the space and how would Kate respond to the likes of Fred Wilson stating consumer mobile is very difficult with difficult customer acquisition and then even harder, customer retention?
5.) How has the process been for Kate in establishing the fund? What are Kate and Galvanize's key differentiators to the sea of other NYC seed funds? How does Kate approach deal sourcing at Galvanize? If investing outside the Galvanize community, what channels are the preferred channels?
6.) Why is Kate so excited about hardware? Where does Kate see the future of IOT going? Is crowdfunding an option for hardware startups?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Kate…
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20 VC: David Tisch @ Box Group on The Future of Consumer Mobile, Developing Pattern Recognition and FOMO
11 januari 2016 · 32 min
David Tisch is the Managing Partner of BoxGroup, one of New York most prolific seed investors with investments in over 120 seed-stage technology companies including Vine, Sunrise Calendar, Warby Parker, Harry’s, Oscar, Meerkat, and Zady. As of 2014, David is also the Co-Founder of Spring, an app that allows the worlds best brands to sell directly to consumers on mobile, with his brother Alan who is the CEO. Prior to Box and Spring, David co-founded TechStars NYC, and was named to NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s Advisory Council on Technology. Lees meer
A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here!
Click To Play
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How David made his way into the world of startups and investing?
2.) Having started Box in 2008, how has David seen the NY venture and startup scene develop over the last years? Matt Hartman @ Betaworks: how has that impacted the type of investments you make? Has it changed your thesis, theme, or any other aspect of how you invest? Kanyi Maqubela @ Collaborative: Does an ecosystem need anchor companies to be great? What are New York's anchor companies?
3.) What is the vision with Box? Is this a fund that lasts through the ages? Last year I heard you made 3 hires, is this a sign of a desire to create the NYC fund? At Box you have a weighting towards mobile consumer tech, how do you respond to Fred Wilson’s post about the mobile downtown and the difficulty in attaining and maintating traction for mobile apps?
4.) What was the motivation behind moving into the world of entrepreneurship with Spring? What aspects of Alan's and Box as a product has contributed to it’s massive success?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
David's Fave Productivity Tools: Captio
David's Most Recent Investment: Nucleus: The Smart Home Wireless Intercom
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and David on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more col…
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20 VC FF 029: VC vs Angel Funding & The Future of E-Commerce with Ivan Mazour, Founder @ Ometria
8 januari 2016 · 31 min
Ivan Mazour is a serial entrepreneur, investor and author. He is the CEO and Founder of Ometria - a predictive analytics and marketing platform built specifically for retailers, letting them use data to increase revenues and provide an improved customer experience. Alongside this main role, he is also the Founding Partner of Innova Kapital - an early stage VC firm investing in UK-based technology startups, including companies like YPlan and organisations like Entrepreneur First. Ivan also writes a popular blog called “A Young Entrepreneur in London”. Lees meer
A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here!
Click To Play
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Ivan progressed from making 30+ investments to founding one of Europe's hottest startups?
2.) Considering Ivan's recent fundraising, what does Ivan think of the recent funding environment and landscape? How was it raising venture funding now?
3.) What was the difference between raising an angel round to raising a VC round? Did Ivan have to adapt your pitch accordingly? Do they have differing desires and expectations?
4.) Having raised both VC and angel money recently for Ometria, how has that led Ivan to view his own investing style? Is there anything Ivan looks for or at differently now he has experienced fundraising from the other side?
5.) What have been the hardest and most challenging aspects of growing Ometria? How did Ivan overcome them?
6.) Taking futuristically now on the sector of e-commerce, where does Ivan see the future of technology integrating with retail? Will we see an end to bricks and mortar stores?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Ivan's Fave Book: Rich Dad, Poor Dad & How To Win Friends And Influence People
Ivan's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Saastr
Ivan's Fave Productivity Tools: ToDoist, Google Keep, Google Hangouts
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Ivan on Twitter here!
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20 VC: Philipp Moehring, Head of AngelList Europe on Scaling Seed Stage Funding and Why 500 Is Not Your Traditional VC
6 januari 2016 · 27 min
Philipp Moehring is Head of AngelList Europe and their first European hire, a role he has had since Jan 2014. Whilst being Head of AngelList Europe, he is also Venture Partner for 500 Startups and prior to 500 and AngelList, Philipp was a Principal at Seedcamp and has been involved in more than 100 startups since becoming an investor. For anyone looking to join an AngelList syndicate, absolutely check out Philipp’s here! Lees meer
A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Philipp made it into startups and investing with AngelList and now 500?
2.) In a recent post Philipp said that management consulting, investment banking and accounting were the worst backgrounds for VCs. Why do you think this and where would you like to see the new breed of VCs emerging from?
3.) Considering your work with AngelList, how do you think the US investing scene differs from the European? Why are we seeing this sudden influx of US capital into European markets? What is driving this influx?
4.) The recent £400m that AngelList received from CSC, Philipp tells us a little more about this and what it means for European companies?
5.) How does Philipp's role with 500 integrate with the AngelList model? How does Philipp split the time? Is Philipp ever concerned that with the dominance of syndicates in the years to come, VCs will become non existent?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Philipp's Fave Book: Snow crash, Follow Philipp on GoodReads Here
Philipp's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Brad Feld's: Feld Thoughts
Philipp's Biggest Productivity Tips: SelfControl (Mac)
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Philipp 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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20 VC: Morten Lund on Skype, Bankruptcy, Fintech and Why "Banks Are Full Of Lots Of Stupid People Doing Nothing"
4 januari 2016 · 24 min
Morten Lund, best know for his seed investment in Skype, he has also founded and co-invested in more than 100 startups including the likes of Airhelp who you might recognize as we interviewed their CEO Nicolas Michaelsen in episode check 32, as well as Bullguard, Maxthon and many more. In today’s incredible interview we talk about the story behind his skype investment, how he went from $150m to bankruptcy moving to the present both with his work with Coders Trust helping coders in developing countries to improve their lives to his rocketship journey with one of the world’s most exciting fintech companies in Tradeshift, who have raised a total of over $200m. If you love today's episode, simply click here and share the love! Lees meer
A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Morten got into the technology industry and the world of investing?
2.) How did Morten's investment in Skype come about? How did Morten deal with the bankruptcy and how it changed him as a person?
3.) How does Morten view the current state of European fintech? Where are the significant market opportunities that are yet to be exploited?
4.) Following Morten bankruptcy, he only works with "really cool people". So what makes Morten like someone and believe in them?
5.) How did TradeShift come about from Morten's basement? What was the a-ha moment? What has driven the immense success with over $200m invested? What is the future for the company and the future of money?
6.) Looking forward, what is Morten's main goal and aspiration and how does he plan on attaining it?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Morten's Fave Book: Shantaram
Morten's Fave Blog or Newsletter: The Economist
Morten's Most Recent Investment: Hippocorn
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Morten on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with …
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20VC FF 028: Where To Start Your Startup and Single Founder vs Co-Founder Model with Richard Hanson, Co-Founder & CEO @ HiringScreen
1 januari 2016 · 25 min
Richard Hanson is CEO and co-founder of HiringScreen, where rocket science meets recruitment. Founded in Jan 2015 in Hong Kong, HiringScreen has raised over $800,000 from a number of investors with plans to expand into the Philippines and Indonesia. Before founding HiringScreen, Richard was an award winning headhunter and recruitment consultancy owner. A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here! Lees meer
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) What were the origins of Hiring Screen? What was the a-ha moment for Richard?
2.) What advice would Richard give to founders contemplating entering accelerators? What should they look for and why should they be wary of?
3.) Why does Richard believe that a startup with multiple founders is more beneficial than single founder startups? What would he suggest someone looking to find a co-founder is to do?
4.) Why did Richard start Hiring Screen in Hong Kong? What are Richard's views on Asia's emerging tech scene? What advice would Richard give to a founder deciding where to start a startup?
5.) What has been the most challenging element of growing Hiring Screen? How did Richard overcome it and alter the company from there?
6.) If Richard were to found Hiring Screen again, what would he do differently? Is there anything he wishes he had known before the process?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Richard's Fave Book: The Alliance by Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh
Richard's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Calacanis, Feld Thoughts
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Richard 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!
Free Ebook: How to boost your Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) by over 100%
I would like to say a huge thank you to our sponsor for today's show: LoyaltyBay. Have you ever wished more of your website visitors would conv…
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20 VC: How To Say No Fast and Efficiently and Why UX Must Always Be At The Core Of What You Do with Sitar Teli, Managing Partner @ Connect Ventures
30 december 2015 · 28 min
Sitar Teli is Managing Partner at Connect Ventures and has been a venture capitalist for eight years, focusing on early-stage investments in both consumer and B2B companies. Previously with Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, where she led their Series A round in SoundCloud, she has experience with content, gaming and ecommerce startups. Sitar has a dual degree in Mechanical Engineering and Economics from Duke University. Lees meer
A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Sitar make her way into the wonderful world of VC?
2.) How does Sitar approach the difficult task of saying no to entrepreneurs? What is the framework she has adopted over her 8 years in venture?
3.) There are a large amount of sources of capital for business in the seed stage, why did Sitar believe this was the stage with the most opportunity? Is too much capital chasing too few deals?
4.) With the increasing prominence of crowdfunding, is it a viable alternative to VC? Is Sitar concerned that quality deal flow is being lost to Crowdfunding?
5.) What is driving the growth of the European tech startup scene?
6.) Prior to making investments such as that of Citymapper, one obviously has to look at the team and the product. So what do you look for in a founder and what to you makes a great product?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Sitar's Fave Book: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Sitar's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Benedict Evans Newsletter
Sitar's Fave Apps: Outlook, Sunrise, Citymapper
Sitar's Most Recent Investment: Knyttan
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Sitar 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!
Free Ebook: How to boost your Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) by over 100%
Have you ever wished more of your websit…