The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch Harry Stebbings

Vickie Peng is a Product Partner at Sequoia and the co-creator of Arc, their company-building immersion programme for pre-seed and seed stage founders. Prior to Sequoia, Vickie was a product manager at Polyvore (acquired by Yahoo for $200M) and Instagram, where she grew SMB advertising from $200M to $1BN.
In Today’s Episode with Vickie Peng We Discuss:
Lessons from 15 Years in Product
How did Vickie make her way into the world of product?
How did Vickie turn a small side business into a massive revenue machine at TrialPay?
How did Vickie scale Instagram SMB ads to $1BN? What were her takeaways?
What was Vickie’s business model at Polyvore that eventually led to the $200M acquisition by Yahoo?
Lessons from Scaling 100+ Companies in Sequoia
What does Vickie believe are the biggest mistakes early stage founders make when telling stories?
Which 2 components does Vickie believe every great product mission should include?
How should pre-product-market fit founders set their north star metric?
Perfecting Product Strategy
What was Vickie’s biggest product mistake? What were her lessons?
Why does Vickie think the best product people build less product?
What is Vickie’s advice to product leaders starting their first day on the job?
What are the most common mistakes founders make when hiring product teams?
Product-Market Fit Masterclass
Why does Vickie believe product-market fit is a journey not a destination?
What are the biggest reasons founders fail to get product-market fit?
What are the 3 types of product-market fit?
How does Vickie advise founders to differentiate themselves in competitive markets?
What is Vickie’s framework for competing against incumbents?
 

Sam Altman is the CEO @ OpenAI, the company on a mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. OpenAI is one of the fastest-scaling companies in history with a valuation of $90BN and $2BN+ in revenue. Prior to OpenAI, Sam was the President and CEO @ Y Combinator and made angel investments in the likes of Airbnb, Stripe, Reddit, Pinterest, Asana and more.

Brad Lightcap is the COO @ OpenAI and the man responsible for the incredible scaling of sales, GTM, partnerships and business to today being over $2BN in revenue. Before OpenAI, Brad was an investor at Y Combinator, where he met Sam and before that led finance and operations initiatives at Dropbox.

In Today's Episode with Sam Altman and Brad Lightcap We Discuss:
1. The Partnership: The Most Powerful Double Act in Tech:

How did 25 people rejecting OpenAI's CFO positions 6 years ago, lead to Brad joining OpenAI before Sam even did? What did he see that the world did not? What does Brad think is Sam's biggest superpower that the world does not know? What does Sam think it Brad's biggest superpower that the world does not now? How do decisions get made between Brad and Sam? How do they decide what to delegate vs what not to? What is the most recent disagreement they had? How did they resolve it?
2. The Next 12 Months for OpenAI: Bottlenecks, Compute and Commoditisation:

What are the core bottlenecks facing OpenAI in the next 12 months? How does Sam believe we solve the fundamental problem of compute? What is the single biggest barrier to the quality of models improving? What is the end state for the model landscape? Will models become commoditised?
3. OpenAI: The Fastest Scaling Company in History:

What has been the secret to how OpenAI has scaled to $2BN in revenue in 24 months? Why does Sam believe that he is "not a great operator"? What drives this thinking? What have been the first things to break in the scaling of OpenAI? What do Brad and Sam know now about the scaling that they wish they had known at the start? Why does OpenAI lean towards hiring more experienced people in the team?
4. How to Invest and Operate in a World of OpenAI:

What single question can founders ask that will reveal if they will be steamrolled by OpenAI? Does Sam believe huge numbers of companies will be steamrolled by OpenAI? For investors, is there money to be made investing in the application layer of AI today? What question should all businesses be asking about how to adopt and use AI in their business?
5. Sam Altman: AMA:

What have been the single biggest lessons Sam has learned from the founders he has invested in? Which founders has he learned the most from? What did he learn from each? What is Sam most concerned about in the world today? Why what? What unexpected traits or characteristics does Sam most look for in the founders he invests in? Why does Sam say that he is not happy but he is grateful?
 

 

Sam Blond is the former CRO at Brex, where he led the company from near $0-$400M in ARR and a $12.5B valuation. Before Brex, Sam was VP of Sales at Zenefits, where he led the company from $0-$70M ARR in 2 years and a $4.5B valuation. Sam joined Founders Fund as a Partner in 2022 and recently left to focus more on operating.

In Today's Episode with Sam Blond We Discuss:
1. Lessons From Scaling Brex to $400M ARR & Zenefits to $70M ARR:

What are the secrets that very few people know, that led to the success of Brex and Zenefits? What was the single worst sales investment Brex made? What was the best? What are Sam's biggest tips to people picking the rocketship they will join?
2. Who, What and When to Hire:

When is the right time to hire your first sales rep? Should the founder be the one to create the sales playbook? What is the right profile for the first sales hire? Does it matter if the new hire has domain experience? Why does Sam always advocate to hire through network and not recruiters?
3. How to Hire the Best Sales Reps:

What are the questions Sam always asks in interviews with sales hires? Does Sam do case studies with candidates? What is he looking for? What are the biggest green and red flags a candidate can show in an interview process? What are the biggest mistakes founders make when hiring sales teams?
4. How to Have the Best Performing Sales Team:

What are the three ways to measure the success of a rep in the first 30-60 days? Why does Sam believe most startups are doing outbound wrong? What should they change? Why does Sam believe demand gen is the bottleneck for all companies? What can be done to solve the demand gen challenge? How does outbound change in a world of AI?

Kevin Ryan is one of the leading serial entrepreneurs and investors in New York. Previously he co-founded MongoDB, Business Insider, Gilt Groupe, Zola, Nomad Health, Pearl Health, and was the CEO of DoubleClick (Acquired by Google for $3.1B). Today, Kevin is the founder and CEO of AlleyCorp, a venture capital firm that incubates and invests in transformative companies in healthcare, diversified tech, robotics, and impact. Just yesterday, Alleycorp announced their $250M fund, their first ever external capital. 
In Today’s Episode with Kevin Ryan We Discuss:
Early Signs of Entrepreneurship
How did Kevin’s early life shape his career? How would his parents and teachers describe him?
Does Kevin agree that successful entrepreneurs always show signs early?
What does Kevin think about luck vs. skill? Why does Kevin think that most things are out of your control as an entrepreneur?
Lessons from Founding 10+ Companies Worth $27BN
Does Kevin agree the best CEOs are also the best fundraisers?
What were Kevin’s biggest lessons from scaling DoubleClick from 20 to 2000 employees?
What was Kevin’s a-ha moment behind Business Insider? What was the reason behind its success?
Why does Kevin believe the best founders are always in unfamiliar fields?
Incubating World’s Best Companies
How does Kevin allocate resources between incubations vs. investments?
What are the biggest commonalities between successful companies at AlleyCorp?
Is Kevin a market-led or people-led investor?
What does Kevin think is the most important element in achieving product-market fit?
What was Kevin’s biggest miss on selecting founders? What were his takeaways?
Current State of Venture
Why does Kevin believe venture is more competitive now than ever before?
What does Kevin know now that wish he’d known when he started investing?
Does Kevin agree rich investors make better investors?
Why does Kevin not care about ownership?
Does Kevin agree with Doug Leone that venture has transitioned from a high boutique margin industry to a low margin commoditised industry?
Does Kevin agree with Peter Fenton that price is a mental trap?
 

Basti Lehmann is the co-founder and former CEO of Postmates, the on-demand delivery service that raised over $900M from the likes of Tiger Global, Founders Fund, Spark Capital and Andreesen Horowitz. Following Uber’s $2.65BN acquisition in 2020, Basti founded TipTop, a platform for fast tech sales which Marc Andreesen led the $20M seed round for.

In Today’s Episode with Basti Lehmann We Discuss:
From US Immigrant to Billion Dollar Founder
How did Basti start his career hacking AT&T?
How did early hardships shape Basti’s work ethic?
What were Basti’s biggest challenges building Postmates?
Lessons from Raising $900M
How did Basti raise $20M from Marc Andreesen?
How does Basti select which VCs to work with?
Why does Basti think 99% of VCs are sheep?
Why does Basti think great VCs add no value?
Why does Basti think having to educate investors is a massive red flag?
Selling Postmates for $2.65BN
Why did Basti sell Postmates to Uber? How did the acquisition happen?
Was there anything Basti would have done differently?
What does Basti think makes Dara Khosrowshahi a great CEO?
What is Basti’s biggest advice to founders on acquisitions?
Future of AI: Startups or Incumbents?
What does Basti think is the biggest challenge of LLMs today?
Why does Basti think inference computing will be the future of AI?
Why does Basti think incumbents can be replaced?
Why does Basti think the biggest companies are being born today?
 

Mario Schlosser is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Oscar Health. The public company that went public with a market cap of $7.1BN. Following a tumultuous time in the markets, their stock price dropped 94%. Today, the company has rebounded and has a market cap of $3.2BN with an astonishing $5.8BN of revenues. Before co-founding Oscar, Mario also co-founded the largest social gaming company in Latin America.

In Today's Episode with Mario Schlosser We Discuss:
1. From German Middle-Class to Public Company Founder:

How did Mario make his way into the world of tech and come to co-found Oscar with Josh Kushner? Does Mario agree with Jensen Huang that "we should all have lower expectations"? What does Mario know now that he wishes he had known when he started Oscar?
2. Why Did Oscar Tank 94% in the Public Markets:

What was the core reason why Oscar tanked 94% in the markets? What would Mario have done differently knowing all he knows now about public markets? Does Mario regret going public? What are the biggest pros and cons?
3. The Mental Challenge of a 94% Market Cap Decline:

How did Mario mentally deal with the company being down 94%? What does he say to himself in the truly hard times? How did Mario use his co-founder, a coach and his family, to get through the really bad times? What are Mario's experiences like with anti-depressants? What worked? What did not?
4. Firing Yourself as CEO:

Why did Mario decide to step aside as CEO? What was the decision-making process? On reflection, does Mario think he was a good CEO? Where was he good? Where was he bad? What are the biggest management pieces of advice that Mario thinks are BS?