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

Eric Glyman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ramp, America's fastest growing corporate card and finance automation platform. Under Eric’s leadership, Ramp has raised more than $1 billion in financing, with a valuation of $8.1 billion. Prior to Ramp, Eric co-founded Paribus, a price-tracking app to help consumers save money (acquired by Capital One). Ramp recently raised another $150 million series D round co-led by Founders Fund and Khosla ventures, with a post-money valuation of $7.65 billion.

Keith Rabois is a Managing Director @ Khosla Ventures and one of the most respected venture investors of the last decade. Keith has led investments in Stripe, Faire, Ramp, Affirm and many more. Prior to Khosla Ventures, Keith was General Partner at Founders Fund, where he led investments for Ramp, Trade Republic, and Aven. 

In Today’s Episode with Eric Glyman and Keith Rabois We Discuss:
Behind Ramp’s Partnership with Founders Fund & Khosla Ventures
How did the first Founders Fund deal come to be? How was the first meeting?
What does Keith mean when he says Ramp has the “secret sauce” to be successful?
What are 1-2 things Keith thinks Eric is world-class at? What are 1-2 things Eric thinks Keith is world-class at?
How did the latest Khosla deal come to happen?
Ramp: The Fastest Executing Company on the Planet.
How is Eric so good at executing at Ramp? What is his biggest advice to founders on speed of execution?
What are Eric’s biggest challenges in the next 12 months at Ramp?
Why does Keith believe momentum is crucial for early stage startups? What are some easy ways founders can build momentum?
How does Eric think AI will accelerate Ramp and the world of finance?
Leadership Lessons From the Best Founders 
What are Keith’s biggest lessons from Brian Chesky @ Airbnb?
What did Keith learn from Jack Dorsey @ Square about leadership?
What does Eric think founders today should build? What should they not build?
What did Eric learn from Keith on how founders should measure time & progress?
Hiring & Team Management
How did Ramp build a solid talent team? What did they do differently?
Does Keith & Eric believe it is better to hire externally or promote internally? What is the right balance?
Does Keith agree founders should hire & get out the way or micromanage?
How many direct reports does Keith think is enough?
 

Mark Suster is a General Partner @ Upfront Ventures, one of LA's leading early-stage venture firms. Prior to leading Upfront, Mark was a serial entrepreneur having founded two software companies, selling both with the last selling to Salesforce.com. Mark is also a prolific writer and one of his favourite pieces, Lines Not Dots is one for the ages.

In Today's Episode With Mark Suster We Discuss:
1. From Serial Entrepreneur to Leading VC:

How Mark made his way into the world of venture having sold two prior companies? What does Mark know now that he wishes he had known when he started in venture? What advice does Mark give to all young investors starting their career today?
2. How to Raise a Fund:

What are Mark's single biggest lessons from 15 years of fundraising for funds? Should managers look to institutions or friends and family first? Are LPs sheep? Do institutions anchoring funds lead to many others jumping in? What is the right amount to do a first close on? What is the right way to message the first close? What are the single biggest mistakes Mark sees managers make when raising?
3. Exit Environments are F******: What Now:

Why are IPOs not the liquidity events that everyone thinks they are? When does Mark believe IPO windows will open again? How does Mark evaluate the M&A landscape today? With little M&A and IPO activity, why does Mark believe private equity will step into their shoes? With the change to private equity being the buyer, what does that mean for the sale price of the assets? What does that mean for the future of venture returns?
4. Trump, The Woke Left and The World Around Us:

Is Mark concerned about the potential of Trump winning the election? Would Mark rather a Biden administration as the alternative? Why is Mark so worried by the woke left? Does Mark always believe there has been this deep-seated anti-semitism in the US education system? What can be done to remove this from our education system?  

Arthur Mensch is the Co-Founder and CEO of Mistral AI. Since its inception in May 2023, Mistral has raised over $520M in funding from investors like Andreeseen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Microsoft with a current valuation of $2 billion. Before founding Mistral, Arthur was a research scientist at DeepMind, one of the leading AI institutions in the world.

In Today’s Episode with Arthur Mensch We Discuss:
From Models to Team Building: Arthur’s Greatest Lessons at DeepMind
What were Arthur’s biggest lessons from his time at DeepMind?
How did DeepMind shape how Arthur built Mistral?
Why does Arthur believe smaller teams are better for AI?
Why did Arthur decide to leave DeepMind and start Mistral?
Scaling Mistral to $2 Billion Valuation Within a Year
What made Mistral 7B so successful? What did Arthur learn from the model release?
What are the biggest barriers at Mistral today?
How does Arthur balance the sales and research teams at Mistral?
What does Arthur know now that he wishes he had known when he started Mistral?
How to Win in AI: Open Source, Cost, & Adoption
Why did Arthur open-source some models? Why did he close some?
How quickly will the cost of compute go down? Why does Arthur believe marginal costs will not go to zero?
How will open-sourcing LLMs affect the marginal cost?
Does Arthur think open source is ready for enterprise adoption?
What questions should enterprises be asking about AI adoption today?
What are the biggest challenges to AI adoption today?
The Future of LLMs
What does Arthur think are the largest bottlenecks of model quality today?
Does Arthur think future models will be more generalized or vertical-focused?
What does Arthur think about the future of commoditization in models?
Why is Arthur optimistic about the profitability of the application layer of AI?
How should models differentiate themselves today?
 

Adam Gross is one of the masters of product-led growth (PLG). Most recently, Adam was Vimeo's interim CEO. Before Vimeo, Adam was CEO of Heroku, which he joined after selling his startup, Cloudconnect in 2013. Additionally, Adam has held executive leadership roles at Salesforce and Dropbox, and has been an active angel investor & advisor to companies, including Buildkite, Cribl, and Tailscale.
In Today’s Episode with Adam Gross We Discuss:
PLG Tactics from Dropbox, Heroku and Salesforce:
What were Adam’s biggest takeaways from his time at Salesforce? How did it shape his growth mindset?
What did Adam learn about customer acquisition at Dropbox?
What would Adam most like to change about growth today?
Product-Led Growth: The Fundamentals:
What is growth? What is it not? What do founders get wrong about growth?
Why does Adam think PLG is not for everybody?
What do most great PLG businesses have in common?
How are value propositions segmented in PLG? How can startups transition from individual to enterprise clients?
Why does Adam think startups doing paid acquisition sub $100M aren’t actually PLG?
The Secrets to Optimizing Growth Channels:
What are the most common reasons fast-growing companies plateau?
How does Adam advise founders on diversifying channels?
What are the biggest mistakes founders make when scaling into enterprise?
How should startups do effective product marketing in horizontal products?
What is emotive & strategic marketing? How should startups balance both?
How Angel Investing Changes How You View Companies:
What are Adam’s top 3 pieces of advice for founders?
What does Adam mean when he says you are either hiring a poet or a librarian?
What are the biggest mistakes founders make when hiring?
What was Adam’s biggest investment miss? What did he learn from it?

Rujul Zaparde is the Co-Founder and CEO of Zip, the world’s leading Intake-to-Pay solution, adopted by leading enterprises and startups including Snowflake, Canva, Airtable, Webflow, and others. In 2023, Zip raised $100 million in a Series C round, valuing the company at $1.5 billion. Before founding Zip, Rujul was a Visiting Partner at Y Combinator and a product manager at Airbnb.
In Today’s Episode with Rujul Zaparde We Discuss:
From Airbnb PM to $1.5BN Founder
How did Rujul’s first company fail? What were his lessons?
What did Rujul learn from his time at Airbnb?
How did Rujul come to co-found Zip? What was the aha moment?
What did Rujul wish he’d known when he started Zip?
Standing Out in a Hyper-Competitive Market
Why did Rujul pick such a competitive market? How did they stand out?
Does Rujul think founders should focus on pain points or platform solutions on day one?
What is Rujul’s advice to founders who are in the discovery process?
Does Rujul agree with Trae Stephens @ Founders Fund that serial entrepreneurs doing B2B enterprise SaaS are wasting their talent?
The Biggest Lessons Scaling Zip to $1.5BN Valuation
Which key moment caused Zip to accelerate?
Why does Rujul think speed is the most important element in startups?
Why does Rujul not believe in design partners?
Why does Rujul believe repeatability is the most important thing when pitching?
Does Rujul think AI will destroy outbound sales?
How to Hire & Manage Teams
What was Rujul’s “rude awakening” building a sales team?
What was Rujul’s biggest hiring mistake? What did he learn from it?
How does Rujul decide where to focus his attention and resources?
Why does Rujul believe younger managers are more creative?
 

Daniel Dines is the Co-Founder @ UiPath, one of the most incredible journeys in startups. For 10 years, UiPath was a bootstrapped company that scaled to just $500K in revenue. Then it all changed, product market fit became obvious and the rest is history. The company went on to raise funding from Sequoia, Accel, Kleiner Perkins and more. Today, the company is worth over $10BN, listed on the NASDAQ and does $1BN+ in revenue.

In Today's Episode with Daniel Dines We Discuss:
1. From a Dollar a Day to Romania's Richest Man:

How would Daniel's parents and teachers have described the young Daniel? How did Daniel first learn to code? Why was his first programming job on $300 per month the best? How did Daniel learn English by playing bridge with his friends? What was the a-ha moment for Daniel with UiPath?
2. Becoming a Billionaire: The Mental Journey:

What does Daniel mean when he says everyone is a prisoner of their own mind? How does Daniel reflect on his own relationship to money? How did having absolutely nothing impact Daniel's relationship to risk? Why does Daniel think that he does not really experience or feel happiness?
3. 10 Years to $500K ARR: The Miracle Bootstrapping Journey:

After 10 years, UiPath had just $500K in ARR, what was the one single moment that changed everything in 2014? How did raising the seed round change everything for Daniel? How did it change his approach to operating? What was the impact of having Sequoia invest? Does it change the game? Why did Daniel say no to them the first time they tried for the Series B?
4. Journey to a $10BN Public Company: The Crucible Moments:

How did the company almost go bust when it spent $400M against a plan of $150M in 2021? What is the single proudest moment Daniel has of the 19 year journey with UiPath? What have been Daniel's biggest management lessons in scaling UiPath to $1BN in ARR? Knowing all that Daniel does today, what would he have done differently about the UiPath journey?