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

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

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC) interviews the world's greatest venture capitalists with prior guests including Sequoia's Doug Leone and Benchmark's Bill Gurley. Once per week, 20VC Host, Harry Stebbings is also joined by one of the great founders of our time with prior founder episodes from Spotify's Daniel Ek, Linkedin's Reid Hoffman, and Snowflake's Frank Slootman. If you would like to see more of The Twenty Minute VC (20VC), head to www.20vc.com for more information on the podcast, show notes, resources and more.

  1. 7 HRS AGO

    20VC: Why Price Sensitivity is BS | Why "Portfolios" are Merely a Construct to Make LPs Happy | Why the Best Investment Never Happen in "Fundraising Rounds" | What Europe Needs to do to Become a Superpower Again | Klaus Hommels, Lakestar

    Klaus Hommels is one of Europe’s leading start investors of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Spotify, Airbnb, Facebook, Coinbase, Revolut and more. Among his many responsibilities, Klaus is the Founder of Lakestar, his own venture fund and chairs the board of directors of the NATO Innovation Fund. In Today’s Episode with Klaus Hommels We Discuss:  1. The Investing Rules that are BS: Why does Klaus totally reject the idea of price sensitivity? Why does Klaus hate the idea of “building portfolios”? Why does Klaus believe the best investments are made when there is not a fundraising round in motion? Why does Klaus believe that capital concentration limits on a per company basis are BS? How concentrated is Klaus happy to be? 2. Europe: What The F*** is Going On: Why is Europe underfinancing innovation by a factor of eight? Why is Europe unable to send satellites into space for six years? What should Europe do to become a global superpower once again? What needs to change? Why should European pension funds be forced to invest in venture capital? 3. The Stories Behind the $BN Returns: How did a dinner with Klaus’ son lead to his investing in Revolut? How did Klaus analysis of Friendster and MySpace lead to his buying Matt Cohler @ Benchmark’s Facebook shares? How did a small investment in a Swedish company, Stardoll, lead to Klaus investing in the seed round of Spotify? How did a conversation with Madonna’s manager lead to Klaus investing in Airbnb?

    1h 10m

  2. 1 DAY AGO

    20VC: Discord's Jason Citron on Why Everything We are Taught About Hiring & Management is BS | Do Richer Founders & Gamer Founders Make Better Founders? | Never Before Told Moments Behind Scaling to 200M Users

    Jason Citron is the Co-Founder and CEO of Discord, a voice, video and text platform for friends playing games. Jason has raised $1BN for the company and was able to scale to 200M users. Prior to co-founding Discord, Jason founded OpenFeint, the biggest social mobile gaming platform, which sold to GREE in 2011 for $104 million. In Today’s Episode with Jason Citron We Discuss:  1. Leadership Lessons That are Total BS: Hiring: Why does Jason believe hiring experienced executives is the worst thing you can do for your company? What did he learn by doing it? Culture: Why does Jason believe that empowerment and alignment are total BS? How does Jason empower people when they are told what to do vs choose what to do? Strategy: What does Jason believe is the most effective way to drive and implement the strategy?  2. The Untold Moments Behind Scaling to 200M Users: Why did Jason offer to give investors their money back at one point? What was the hardest round to raise and why? Why did Jason turn down the chance to sell to Microsoft for $12BN?  What one single change in how Jason communicated with the first 100 users changed the trajectory of the entire company? What do most founders think they know about product market fit that they do not? 3. The Makings of a Unicorn Founder: Does Jason believe that richer founders make better founders? Why does Jason believe that entrepreneurs who play video games have a higher chance of being successful in the future? What single trait does Jason believe he has that has made him such a successful founder? Does Jason ever have imposter syndrome? When?

    51 min

  3. 5 DAYS AGO

    20Sales: What I Learned Scaling Datadog from $60M to $1BN in ARR | How to do Outbound in 2024 | Why Discounting is Dangerous and Contract Sizes are Misleading with Dan Fougere

    Dan Fougere is one of the most successful sales leaders of the last decade. Most recently, Dan was Chief Revenue Officer for Datadog, growing revenues from $60 million to $1BN ARR. Before Datadog, Dan was Head of Global Sales at Medallia where he created the Mediallia sales playbook. In addition, Dan is also a minority owner of the New York Yankees.  In Today’s Episode with Dan Fougere:  1. Lessons Scaling Sales to $1BN in ARR at Datadog: What did Datadog not do that Dan wishes they had of done? What did they not do that Dan wishes they had done? What does Dan know about scaling sales to $1BN in ARR that he wishes he had known at the beginning? What stage of the scaling process was hardest? Why? 2. How to Hire the Best Sales Team: What are the top signals of the best sales candidates? How does Dan structure the interview process for new candidates? How does Dan use tasks and take-home assignments to test candidates? What does Dan think of hiring panels? What are the biggest hiring mistakes Dan has made? What did he learn? 3. Discounting, Logos and Deal Reviews: Is discounting always wrong? How should sales leaders use it? How important is the quality of logo in the early days vs revenue in the door? What is the right way to structure deal reviews? What makes good vs great? Is outbound dead in 2024? Advice to founders on outbound?

    1h 10m

  4. NOV 20

    20VC: Turning $16.5M into $2.1BN; Lessons from the Greatest Venture Investment in European History: UiPath | Why VC is Not Being Commoditised | Why Price Does Not Matter | Lessons on Loss Ratio, Selling and Signalling with Cem Sertoglu

    Cem Sertoglu is one of the great venture investors of the last decade. Cem is famed for writing the first check into UiPath and over several rounds turning $16.5M into $2.1BN. Cem recently started Bek Ventures, a $250M fund that was 3x oversubscribed.  In Today’s Show with Cem Sertoglu We Discuss: 1. Has Venture Capital Been Commoditised: Why does Cem believe that VC has not been commoditised? Why does Cem believe many VCs today are not even VCs anymore? How does Cem advise founders who have offers from large multi-stage firms? What questions should they ask them pre-working with them?  How do the best founders select the VC they choose to work with? 2. Price, Reserves, Loss Ratios: Why does Cem believe that price does not matter? How does Cem approach reserves and reserves management? What does Cem know now about reserves that he wishes he had known when he started investing? Does Cem care about loss ratio? Does he do scenario planning when making investments? 3. Making $2.1BN on UiPath:  How did Cem meet Daniel for the first time? Was it obvious he was incredible? Why did they only write a $1M check and not take the whole round with $1.5M? Why did 40 of the best investors in Europe all turn down UiPath for the Series A? What did doing the bridge round for UiPath teach Cem about reserves? When was it obvious UiPath was going to be a mega hit? How did they continue to concentrate capital with each round? When did they first start to sell shares in UiPath? What was their approach to the selldown of their position? When the company IPO’d, how much of it did they have?  4. AMA with One of Europe’s Best: Does signalling exist? How does Cem advise founders on this? What has been his biggest loss? How did that change his mindset? What has been Cem’s biggest miss? What did he not see? Why does Cem always believe you should manufacture arguments with founders before investing? Why does Cem believe a high GP commit can actually misalign the GP and the LP?

    1h 3m

  5. NOV 18

    20VC Alain De Botton on Why Companies Are Not Families | Why Status is Making You Miserable | Why Parents Want Their Kids to Fail | Why We Are Richer Yet More Anxious Than Ever & Why You Should Not Always "Be Yourself"

    Alain De Botton is one of the greatest philosophers of our time. His work has had a profound impact on me more than any other. I have wanted to do this episode for the last 8 years.  In Today’s Episode with Alain De Botton We Discuss: 1. Why Status is Making You Miserable:  Why are we richer yet more anxious than ever? What is the right way to define status? Why do we want it so much? Is it bad to want status? What are some non-obvious signs that you are seeking status when you do not realise it? Does social media enhance the desire for status? How so? Do the happiest people want status the least? What are Alain’s biggest observations in how truly happy people think about status? 2. Why Parents Want You To Fail:  Why is the sign of good parenting when your child does not want to be famous? Why do your parents sometimes want you to fail?  What should parents do if their child wants to chase an unachievable goal? Why should parents encourage their children to start very early?  3. Why Meritocracy is a Fallacy & Meaningful Work: Why does Alain believe a true meritocracy is an impossible dream? Why is meritocracy a bad thing when taken to the extreme? Why does Alain believe that companies are not families? Why does Alain tell people that they should not bring their full selves to work?  4. WTF is “Meaningful Work”:  What does it mean to do “meaningful work”? Why do humans need to do “meaningful work” today in a way that we did not many years ago? What are Alain’s biggest pieces of advice to young people today, unsure of what they should do with their lives and careers? Why does Alain believe the idea of a “calling” is BS? 5. Ambition, Achievement and Sacrifice: What does Alain mean when he says “you have to tolerate your own averageness”? What does Alain say to the young generation who want work/life balance? What does Alain mean when he said you “cannot be at war with yourself”? Does Alain agree that to achieve you must sacrifice?

    1h 12m

  6. NOV 15

    20Growth: Inside Perplexity's Growth Machine: What Worked, What Did Not Work | Why Paid Acquisition is a Drug and Brand Marketing is BS | The Good, Bad and Ugly of A/B Tests and Why Micro-Optimisations are Under-Rated with Raman Malik

    Raman Malik is the Head of Growth at Perplexity where he is responsible for growth marketing, onboarding, activation, retention, and monetisation. Prior to Perplexity, Raman, was an early member of the growth team at Lyft and joined Perplexity earlier this year after his own startup journey.  In Today’s Episode with Perplexity’s Head of Growth:  1. Inside the Perplexity Growth Machine: What have been the single biggest needle movers in the growth of Perplexity? What has not worked? What have they learned from that? How have partnerships driven growth? Lessons on what makes a good vs bad partnership? Why does Raman think paid acquisition is a drug and Perplexity do not do it? How does Raman advise other founders when it comes to paid acquisition? 2. Acquisition, Retention, Churn: Mastering the Basics: Why does Raman think that brand marketing is BS? When does it become more important? What are the simplest things startups and product teams can do to drive retention up? How do Perplexity count an “engaged user”? What metric suggests they have a retained user? What is the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to A/B tests? 3. How Perplexity Built a Growth Machine: Why does Raman advise all founders to hire more former founders? How does the way you manage founders turned employees differ from employees who have never been founders? What is the must under appreciated growth channel today that has worked for Perplexity? What growth channel has been the biggest flop for Perplexity? What did Raman learn from losing money on the channel?

    59 min

  7. NOV 13

    20VC: Bolt; The Most Insane Story in Startups | Turning a $5K Loan into an $8BN Company | Why Every VC Turned Down One of Europe's Biggest Winners | Competing with Uber & The Future of Micromobility and Self-Driving

    Markus Villig is the Founder and CEO of Bolt, a global mobility platform with more than 200 million lifetime customers in more than 50 countries and 600 cities. Bolt has raised over €1 billion in funding from investors like Sequoia, D1 and G Squared, making Markus the youngest founder of a billion-dollar company in Europe. In Today’s Episode with Markus Villig: 1. Starting an $8BN Company: How did Markus come up with the idea for Bolt before Uber existed? How did Markus find his co-founder? Why did 30 people turn down the chance to co-found Bolt? What are Markus’ biggest tips on finding a co-founder? How did Markus use a $5K loan from his parents as the pre-seed round? How did Markus get the first riders for Bolt? What worked? What did not work? How did Markus get the first driver for Bolt? What worked? What did not work? 2. Expanding to be a Global Champion: How did Markus expand Bolt to $10M in ARR on just $1M of funding? What did the international expansion playbook look like? What worked? What did not work? How has it changed over time? What one simple change led to their becoming the leader in Africa? What was the best country to launch? What was the worst? What is the most profitable country today? What is the least? 3. The $8BN Company that no VC Wanted to Fund: Why did every large VC in Europe turn down Bolt early on? How did a real estate company in the Baltics save Bolt with lifeline funding? When did Sequoia come into the mix? Does Sequoia move the needle for your company when they invest? How do New York financially driven investors differ to the traditional VC ecosystem? What would Markus most like to change about the world of VC? 4. The Future: Micromobility, Self-Driving Cars, Uber: Will the rise of self-driving cars harm or help companies like Bolt and Uber? What is the future for micromobility? Does it cannibalise the core business for Bolt and Uber? What is Uber better at Bolt doing? What are Uber worse at than Bolt? How will that change moving forward? Waymo, buy or short? Why?

    1h 29m

  8. NOV 11

    20VC: Anduril Co-Founder on How a Trump Administration Changes the Defence Industry | What Happens Between China vs Taiwan, Israel vs Palestine, Russia vs Ukraine | How Software Changes War & Why TikTok Should Be Banned with Matt Grimm

    Matt Grimm is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Anduril Industries, an American defense technology company that specializes in advanced autonomous systems. To date, Anduril has raised over $3.7BN with the latest round pricing the company at a whopping $14BN. Before Anduril, Matt was a Principal at Mithril Capital Management alongside Peter Thiel. Before Mithril, Matt was an early hire at Palantir, where he was deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan to ensure U.S. forces had the best technology for the mission.                             In Today’s Episode with Matt Grimm We Discuss: 1. China/Taiwan, Ukraine/Russia & Israel/Gaza: How will a Trump administration change US foreign policy and approach to conflict? Will China invade Taiwan? What does Matt expect to see happen there? Will Trump put an end to the war in Ukraine? What will be the outcome? Is Israel wrong to defend itself in the way it has? How will the situation in Gaza be resolved? 2. The Future of War: What will war look like in the future? How is software and autonomy changing the world of war?  Why does the incentive structure of governments buying military equipment need to change around the world? Will we see a world of robodogs fighting on battlefields? What does weaponry of the future look like? 3. Are We In a Defence Bubble: With the massive increase in funding to defence companies, does Matt think we are in a defence bubble? What does Matt believe all investors should know about the defence industry before they make investments in the space? What should defence founders at the early stage know about building a defence company at scale? What changes? Who will be the buyer for the many defence companies that have raised early rounds of funding and go out of business?  4. Matt Grimm: AMA: Does money make you happy? What is the biggest luxury purchase you have made? Should TikTok be banned in the US? What would Matt do today if he knew he would not fail?

    1h 23m
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The Twenty Minute VC (20VC) interviews the world's greatest venture capitalists with prior guests including Sequoia's Doug Leone and Benchmark's Bill Gurley. Once per week, 20VC Host, Harry Stebbings is also joined by one of the great founders of our time with prior founder episodes from Spotify's Daniel Ek, Linkedin's Reid Hoffman, and Snowflake's Frank Slootman. If you would like to see more of The Twenty Minute VC (20VC), head to www.20vc.com for more information on the podcast, show notes, resources and more.

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