Paul Hsiao (Canvas Ventures) - How the Data Economy Is Impacting Consumer and the State of the Series A

My guest today is Paul Hsiao, co-founder and General Partner at Canvas Ventures. Canvas is one of the leading Series A firms having invested in Zola, Thrive Global and Roofstock. You'll learn what are the ingredients that could make for a spectacular marketplace businesses, what the series a currently looks like, and much much more. Without further ado, here's Paul.

And there you have it. It was a pleasure chatting with Paul. You can follow him @paul_hsiao on Twitter.

Some of the questions I ask Paul:

1. What was your initial attraction to technology?
2. After Mazu Networks, why did you decide to become a venture capitalist?
3. How did Canvas come together?
4. I know one of your main focuses is marketplace businesses. There’s alot of chatter in consumer how consumer SaaS type businesses are becoming the future of consumer software as a primary business model. What do you make of the current landscape?
5. What makes a market place business exciting for you to invest in?
6. What is your due diligence process? What are the metrics you typically see at the Series A?
7. In today’s market where it seems like there’s more unicorns today than maybe the number of companies that were raising a Series A 10 years ago, what is your expectation when you invest in a company?
8. What’s your biggest learning from this COVID period?
9. After a first time founder raises a Series A, what do you find is the most common element that the founder might have a hard time with when it comes to the board meetings?
10. What are some of the differences investing in enterprise vs. consumer facing businesses?
11. I read that one of your passions is the data economy. How do you describe the data economy and what are some of the ways it could transform B2C businesses?
12. What’s one thing that you would change about venture capital?
13. What’s one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?
14. What’s your biggest piece of advice for anyone building businesses that you find yourself saying the most?