Mitchell Green - Lessons from Cold Calling 10,000 Companies - [Invest Like the Best, EP.464]

My guest today is Mitchell Green. Mitchell Green is the co-founder and managing partner of Lead Edge Capital, a growth equity firm that has spent 15 years building one of the most disciplined investment machines in the business. Unlike most firms chasing power law outcomes, Lead Edge is designed to deliver consistent returns by talking to thousands of companies a year, applying a rigorous eight-point criteria to filter down to a handful of investments, and leveraging a uniquely constructed LP base of world-class executives and entrepreneurs. In this conversation, Mitchell walks through every component of the machine, from how they source and evaluate companies to how they think about selling, building culture, and staying competitive in a world being reshaped by AI. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ----- Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠. ----- ⁠Ramp’s⁠ mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ramp.com/invest⁠⁠ to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. ----- Trusted by thousands of businesses, ⁠Vanta⁠ continuously monitors your security posture and streamlines audits so you can win enterprise deals and build customer trust without the traditional overhead. Visit ⁠vanta.com/invest⁠. ----- ⁠WorkOS⁠ is a developer platform that enables SaaS companies to quickly add enterprise features to their applications. Visit⁠⁠ ⁠WorkOS.com⁠⁠⁠ to transform your application into an enterprise-ready solution in minutes, not months. ----- Rogo is the AI platform for finance. They're building agents for Wall Street that are trained to understand how bankers and investors actually do work: from diligence and modeling, to turning analysis into deliverables. To learn more, visit rogo.ai/invest. ----- ⁠Ridgeline⁠ has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Visit⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ridgelineapps.com⁠. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Timestamps: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best (00:00:53) Episode Intro: Mitchell Green (00:02:01) Cold Calling 10,000 Companies (00:03:54) Building the Lead Edge Machine (00:06:15) Lead Edge’s LP Profile (00:09:22) Hitting Doubles and Triples (00:11:39) Knowing When to Sell (00:15:08) Lead Edge’s Eight Buying Criteria (00:18:12) The Opportunity in Enterprise Software (00:24:54) Using Criteria for Filtering, Not Prediction (00:27:11) Building Relationships with Entrepreneurs (00:29:16) Improving the Investment Machine at Scale (00:31:59) Lead Edge’s Culture (00:35:08) Mitchell’s Schedule (00:36:37) The Mount Rushmore of Investment Machines (00:38:40) The AI Readiness Score (00:40:50) Overhyped, Frothy Markets (00:42:16 When AI Will be a Good Opportunity (00:44:29) Lessons from Competitive Skiing (00:47:33) Starting a Fund & Keeping Score (00:49:15) The Kindest Thing