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

Harry Stebbings
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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.

  1. 1d ago

    20VC: Mistral CEO on Why Energy Is Not the Bottleneck to AI | Why OpenAI and Anthropic Will Come for Your Business | The Future of the Inference Market | Are Chinese Open-Source Models Truly Safe?

    Arthur Mensch is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Mistral, the last remaining hope for frontier intelligence in Europe. Mistral has raised approximately $7.5BN, including debt, and reached a valuation above $24BN. Previously a researcher at Google DeepMind, Arthur co-authored the landmark Chinchilla research, showing how smaller, better-trained AI models could outperform much larger rivals. AGENDA:  00:00 Is Mistral Europe's Last Hope in AI? 08:45 Are Chinese Open Models Actually Safe? 13:00 Will OpenAI & Anthropic Replace Their Own Customers? 14:40 Why Energy Isn't Europe's Biggest AI Bottleneck 24:05 Why Mistral Won't Follow OpenAI Into Chips 30:40 Who Gets Rich From the Inference Boom? 31:45 102 New AI Labs: Who Actually Survives? 35:30 Are $100 Billion Training Runs a Fantasy? 36:20 If Everyone Needs Compute, Why Are AI Stocks Crashing? 44:05 Will Mistral Choose Europe for Its IPO?

    20VC: Mistral CEO on Why Energy Is Not the Bottleneck to AI | Why OpenAI and Anthropic Will Come for Your Business | The Future of the Inference Market | Are Chinese Open-Source Models Truly Safe?

  2. 3d ago

    20VC: From $8BN to $19BN: Inside WashU's Endowment Fund | SpaceX Made Up 20% of Our AUM | Why Europe and China Has So Much Opportunity | The Reckoning That is Coming for AI Companies with Scott Wilson

    Scott Wilson is the CIO of WashU, one of the best-performing endowment funds in the world. Under his leadership, Scott has grown the endowment from $8BN to $19BN today. At one point, SpaceX was over 20% of the entire value of the endowment.  AGENDA:  00:00 – How WashU Built One of the Best-Performing Endowment Portfolios in the World 04:00 – Scott Wilson's Investment Playbook: Concentration, Conviction and Compounding 05:20 – Why Scott Sold Over 75% of WashU's Portfolio When He Joined 07:15 – How Should You Allocate a $20 Billion Endowment Between Publics and Privates? 10:00 – How WashU Finds Direct Investments That Other LPs Miss 12:15 – How WashU Made Billions From SpaceX and Kept Holding 13:25 – Why Concentration Limits Are Killing Venture Returns 16:15 – Scott's Biggest Investing Mistake  17:10 – How Much Diversification Does a $20 Billion Endowment Really Need? 19:40 – Why Mega Funds Don't Work for WashU's Investment Strategy 23:15 – How WashU Gets Into the Best Companies Before Everyone Else 25:35 – Are Private Market Valuations Now Completely Detached From Reality? 28:10 – Why Half of Today's AI Companies Could Disappear in 10 Years 30:10 – When Should LPs Sell Their Biggest Winners After an IPO? 32:00 – Why Scott Wilson Walked Away From Sequoia Capital 34:15 – The Number One Reason WashU Fires Venture Managers 35:45 – Should LPs Forgive VCs for Deploying Their Funds in Just 18 Months? 38:30 – Is the AI Boom Heading for a Massive Shakeout? 45:15 – Why European Companies Are So Much Cheaper Than US Companies 47:30 – Why WashU Still Believes China Is a Great Place to Invest 48:30 – Is Government Overreach Actually Worse in the UK Than China? 50:10 – Quickfire: The Venture Funds Scott Wishes He Had Backed 53:00 – The Best Career Advice From a $20 Billion Endowment CIO

    20VC: From $8BN to $19BN: Inside WashU's Endowment Fund | SpaceX Made Up 20% of Our AUM | Why Europe and China Has So Much Opportunity | The Reckoning That is Coming for AI Companies with Scott Wilson

  3. 5d ago

    20VC: OpenAI Cuts Valuation to $1.25TRN | Public Market Meltdown: GOOG Loses $500BN in 12 Hours | DoorDash Buys Instacart for $17BN | Kalshi Raises $1BN and Cognition Eyes $80BN Valuation

    AGENDA:  04:00 OpenAI Cuts Valuation to $1.25 Trillion as Fundraise Shrinks 08:00 Google Loses $500 Billion as AI Stocks Sell Off 10:00 Anthropic's Growth Slows as AI Price War Intensifies 27:00 DoorDash Buys Instacart for $17 Billion 33:00 Kalshi Raises $1 Billion at $40 Billion Despite Legal Threats 41:00 Cognition Eyes $80 Billion as Baseten Hits $30 Billion and Serval $3 Billion 51:00 AI Law Firm Crosby Bids for Collapsed Legal Giant Weil 57:00 Physical Intelligence Targets $20 Billion Valuation 01:00:00 Hugging Face Deal Faces Scrutiny as Salesforce Buys Cresta for $2.7 Billion

    20VC: OpenAI Cuts Valuation to $1.25TRN | Public Market Meltdown: GOOG Loses $500BN in 12 Hours | DoorDash Buys Instacart for $17BN | Kalshi Raises $1BN and Cognition Eyes $80BN Valuation

  4. Nov 2

    20VC: Who Wins the Inference Market | Has Open-Source LLM Inference Peaked? | What Happens to the Cost of Compute | The Real Limits of Post-Training and RL with Erik Bernhardsson, Modal CEO

    Erik Bernhardsson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Modal, the AI infrastructure platform for training models, running inference and powering AI agents. Modal has raised over $1.2 billion, including a recent $750 million Series D led by Accel at a $15.75BN valuation. The company has surpassed $1BN in ARR, growing more than 15x year-on-year. Previously, Erik built Spotify's original music recommendation system. AGENDA:  05:30 - Why wait until your mid-30s to start a company? 06:40 - Is founding a startup really like "eating glass"? 08:00 - How to Raise $1BN with No Pitch Deck 08:45 - The danger of raising too much venture capital 09:40 - How much cash is Modal burning on GPUs? 10:30 - Do early-stage startups actually have moats? 13:30 - Who wins the inference market in the next 5 years? 15:30 - Are 90% software gross margins dead in AI? 17:45 - The "open-air drug market" for GPUs 21:30 - Will GPU hardware prices ever collapse? 22:15 - Are we about to overbuild data centers? 23:45 - Can custom silicon dethrone NVIDIA's monopoly? 24:30 - Is CUDA really the moat everyone claims it is? 25:20 - Are Neo Cloud providers partners or mortal enemies? 26:35 - Nebius vs. CoreWeave: who built the better business? 27:25 - Open-source vs. frontier models: which takes the lead? 28:20 - Can Europe ever build a competitive frontier model? 30:20 - The bull case for a $100B verticalized model company 37:15 - Modal's biggest resource allocation mistake 38:00 - Has open-source LLM inference already peaked? 41:30 - The real limits of post-training and RL 44:20 - How much does Modal spend every month on coding agents? 45:50 - The massive gold rush in selling data environments to labs 47:20 - Should enterprises own their own intelligence? 49:50 - Is model routing a defensible standalone business? 53:20 - $20M+ compensation packages for exceptional new grads 54:20 - The #1 portfolio company Erik would bet on 55:10 - What Erik changed his mind on most this year

    20VC: Who Wins the Inference Market | Has Open-Source LLM Inference Peaked? | What Happens to the Cost of Compute | The Real Limits of Post-Training and RL with Erik Bernhardsson, Modal CEO

  5. Oct 31

    20VC: David Tisch on Why High Ownership and Concentration is BS | Why No Manager Actually Wants to Stay Small | Why Competing with the Mega Platforms is a Losing Game | Why the Lean Startup is a Fake?

    David Tisch is the Founder of Box Group, one of the best seed funds of the last decade with early investments in Cursor, Baseten and Clay to name a few. Today the fund invests from two funds, a $275M seed fund and a $275M opportunity fund. AGENDA:  10:40 Why we have less dilution now than ever before 12:50 Why I don't want to compete with the best VCs, and why it's a trap 16:15 What concentrated funds know but do not admit to 17:25 Why multiple tranched rounds can be good for founders 18:45 Why the Lean Startup was a total fake 28:55 Why LPs are frustrated by a market that we can't change 31:50 What is the single best-returning investment in the history of BoxGroup? 33:15 Why fund returners are not always obvious in the early years 40:05 Why funding consumer brands at seed no longer makes sense for venture 42:00 Rogo, the now $2B company, got passed on by 39 out of 40 investors 45:40 Why the marketing message that pro rata is not a right is BS 1:01:50 Why we do not allow negativity in the investment decision-making process 1:03:00 The true magic of early-stage venture capital 1:04:35 Why YC has the best business model in all of venture

    20VC: David Tisch on Why High Ownership and Concentration is BS | Why No Manager Actually Wants to Stay Small | Why Competing with the Mega Platforms is a Losing Game | Why the Lean Startup is a Fake?

  6. Oct 29

    20VC: Anthropic Files S1 Ahead of $2TRN IPO | Instinct's Rumoured $30 Billion Fundraise | Microsoft Laysoff 27,000 While Meta Taps Equity Markets for $95 Billion Capex Spending Spree

    AGENDA:  04:00 Anthropic Files S-1 Ahead of $2TRN IPO 14:50 Microsoft Offers Buyouts to 60,000 Employees 20:45 Zuckerberg Taps Equity Markets for $95 Billion AI Spending Spree 23:00 DeepSeek Raises $15 Billion as Chinese AI Faces US Backlash 34:45 OpenAI and Wiz Uncover Decade-Old Security Flaws 37:05 Instinct's Rumoured $30 Billion Valuation Divides the Panel 45:30 Invest Committee: Put 20% of the Fund Into OpenAI at $1.25 Trillion 49:40 Palmer Luckey's War Dog Startup Hits $1.5 Billion Valuation 55:00 Zuckerberg Threatens California Exit Over Billionaire Tax

    20VC: Anthropic Files S1 Ahead of $2TRN IPO | Instinct's Rumoured $30 Billion Fundraise | Microsoft Laysoff 27,000 While Meta Taps Equity Markets for $95 Billion Capex Spending Spree

  7. Oct 26

    20VC: Satya Nadella on Open vs Closed Models: Who Wins | Whether to Trust Frontier Model Providers | Why Companies Need to Own Their Own Intelligence | The Importance of Verticalisation: From Chips to Models and More

    Satya Nadella is the CEO of Microsoft and one of the greatest CEOs of our time. Satya has been at the company for an astonishing 34 years. When he joined, Microsoft had a market cap of $23.5BN. 22 years later, the company was worth $300BN. At this point, Satya took the reins as CEO. Under his leadership, he has taken it from $300BN to $3.9TRN.  AGENDA:  03:08 Should We Assume Every AI Model Is Compromised? 04:13 How Do We Stop AI Agents From Causing Harm? 06:15 Can We Trust an AI Model's Chain of Thought? 07:05 Is China's Lead in Open-Source AI a Safety Risk? 08:28 Will Open or Closed Models Win the Next Two Years? 10:08 Why Should Every Company Own Its Intelligence? 12:12 Will Every Company Become AI Native? 13:22 Are We Entering an AI Implementation Economy? 15:10 Do You Need to Own the Entire AI Stack to Win? 16:49 Can the World Support $100 Billion AI Training Runs? 18:34 Can AI Radically Accelerate Global Economic Growth? 19:39 Will AI Transform Sales, Finance and Marketing Like Coding? Quickfire round  What have you changed your mind on most in the last 12 months? What looks crazy today but will be incredibly common in 5 years? What's the exercise routine given the travel schedule? Favorite cheat meal on a rest day? What are you most excited for in the next 10 years?

    20VC: Satya Nadella on Open vs Closed Models: Who Wins | Whether to Trust Frontier Model Providers | Why Companies Need to Own Their Own Intelligence | The Importance of Verticalisation: From Chips to Models and More

  8. Oct 24

    20VC: Why Robotics Will be 100x Bigger than Coding Agents | Inference Will Be a $10TRN Market: What No One Sees | Why Software Investors are F***** Today with Naveen Rao, Unconventional

    AGENDA: 05:00 Will we run out of energy? 19:00 Will specialised chips threaten NVIDIA's dominance? 26:00 Can we trust AI agents more than humans? 31:00 Will data companies become commodities? 36:00 What comes after transformers? 41:00 Are software investors f****** in a world of infra and compute? 52:00 How big will the inference market be in 10 years? 53:00 Could robotics be 100x bigger than coding agents? 59:00 Why are coding agents the most overrated AI investment?

    20VC: Why Robotics Will be 100x Bigger than Coding Agents | Inference Will Be a $10TRN Market: What No One Sees | Why Software Investors are F***** Today with Naveen Rao, Unconventional
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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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