20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

Willie Biggart is the Chairman @ Spoonfed, a startup on the cusp of 2 extremely hot sectors, SaaS and food. Spoonfed offers a new way for catering companies and restaurants to take advantage of the growing corporate food drop off market. They are currently raising a £500,000 round on SyndicateRoom, which you can check out here! With regards to Willie himself, Willie founded his own business, BD Network in 1990 and exited in 2002 and BD Ntwk is now one of Europe’s largest marketing agencies. Since 1990 Willie has started, developed and sold 3 businesses. CLICK TO PLAY In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Willie make his move into the entrepreneurial path and come to be Chairman of Spoonfed? 2.) Why does Willie believe it is more beneficial to have SaaS based businesses rather than people based businesses? 3.) Often the hardest problem for SaaS businesses is finding their first customers, how did Willie go about getting Spoonfed's initial user base? 4.) What strategies did Willie undertake to try and understand what features his customers wanted and then how to attract them? 5.) Why does Willie believe the food tech space has seen explosive growth, both in the UK and the US? 5.) Having invested and raised money in the seed round of the funding cycle, both as investor and operator, what advice would Willie give for founders entering a seed round. Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: SpoonFed's Current Fundraising Campaign on SyndicateRoom Willie's Fave Book: Eric Ries: The Lean Startup, The E-Myth Revisited Willie's Blog or Newsletter: Kenny Fraser, Sunstone Communications As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Ashish and LawTrades on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

6 Marras 201526min

Mark Suster is Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures which he joined in 2007, having previously worked with Upfront for nearly 8 years as a two-time entrepreneur. Before joining Upfront Mark was Vice President, Product Management at Salesforce.com following its acquisition of Koral, where Mark was Founder and CEO. Prior to Koral, Mark was Founder and CEO of BuildOnline, a European SaaS company that was acquired by SWORD Group. Mark is also the writer of one of my favourite VC blogs, Both Sides Of The Table which is a centre piece to the whole VC community and is a must read for all interested in entrepreneurship and VC. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Mark make his way into the world of tech and later make the transition to VC? 2.) How have Mark's entrepreneurial origins influenced his investment style and approach to startups? 3.) What really gets Mark excited in terms of the founders and the companies they have built? 4.) How does Mark recommend that startup founders can meet investors and get those initial meetings? 5.) What sector is Mark most excited by and why? 6.) Mark has said in the past 'too much money too early often fucks companies up'. Why is that and how should founders determine what is the right amount to raise? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: My Fave of Mark's Posts: Entrepreneur DNA, I Invest In Lines Not Dots Mark's Fave Book: The Accidental Superpower Mark's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Stratechery, Ben Evans, Chris Dixon, Tom Tunguz Mark's Most Recent Investment: Mitu Networks As always you can follow Harry, Mark, The Twenty Minute VC and Upfront Ventures on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

4 Marras 201527min

Antoine Nussenbaum is a Principal and member of the founding team of Felix Capital. Prior to Felix, Antoine was a Partner at Atlas Global, a private equity fund originally part of GLG Partners. Over the past five years he has worked closely with various early-stage digital startups including Mirakl, Jellynote, Pave, Reedsy and 31Dover and actively helped them launch their businesses. If that wasn't enough he has also been involved since inception with Huckletree, a fast growing coworking operator dedicated to the UK digital community which was started by his wife. To check out the available positions at Felix Capital click here! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Antoine make his move into the world of VC? 2.) What sectors do Felix invest in? What stage? Geography? 3.) How do Felix position themselves in the VC space? How do Felix plan to differentiate between other VCs firms in Europe? As for the structure of the fund, why did Felix choose an advisor heavy approach? 4.) Why does Antoine think Europe has the edge at the moment? Also, with the rise of the Nordics and Berlin, why did Felix choose to setup in London? 5.) How does Antoine assess the London and European funding and tech environment at the moment? Does Antoine agree with the media hype over a tech bubble? 6.) How do digital brands address the issue of the millenials with reducing brand loyalty? Does Antoine think this will be a problem for consumer startups in the fashion, food and travel space? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Felix's Manifesto, HuckleTree, Co-Founder @ Huckletree on CNBC Antoine's Fave Book: The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, Capital In The Twenty-First Century by Thomas Picketty Antoine's Fave Productivity Tools: Streak, Slack, Evernote, Pocket Antoine's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Fred Wilson: AVC, ProductHunt Antoine's Most Recent Investment: The Food Assembly As always you can follow Harry, Antoine, The Twenty Minute VC and Felix Capital on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

2 Marras 201524min

Ashish Walia is the Co-Founder & COO at 500 Startups portfolio company, LawTrades. LawTrades aims to decentralise the traditional legal hiring process through providing an amazing marketplace of attorneys with domain experience in the startup world having worked with companies from the likes of YC, Techstars and 500. Ashish is also the Host of The Ashish Walia Show, a podcast dedicated to interviewing the latest and greatest world changing entrepreneurs, you can listen to Harry's interview on The Ashish Walia Show here! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) I would love to kick off today’s show by hearing a little about your background and the origins of LawTrades? What was the a-ha moment for you? 2.) Was Ashish nervous leaving the security of the legal profession for the life of a tech founder? What would Ashish advise people who want to make the leap but are not sure if it is worth risking everything? 3.) The legal space is about a century behind the rest of the consumerised world of tech, why is there this divergence between the advancement of tech and the lacking progression of the legal space? 4.) How did Ashish come to raise funds from 500? What was the process and interview like? Why did Ashish choose 500 out of all the accelerators? What were the challenging and surprising elements of the fundraising journey? 6.) What would Ashish do differently if he was founding LawTrades again? What does Ashish wish he had been told before he became an entrepreneur? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Ashish's Fave Book: Peter Thiel: Zero To One Ashish's Fave Entrepreneurial Resources: Gary Vaynerchuk, This Week In Startups, How To Start A Startup Ashish's Fave Blog: James Altucher, Tim Ferriss, As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Ashish and LawTrades on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here! We would like to say a special thank you to our partner for this very special 500 Startups Feature Week, LawTrades, the go to place for startups and VCs to get their legal work done. For all 20VC listeners LawTrades are offering a special $150 off your first piece of legal work when you mention ‘The Twenty Minute VC’. You can follow them on Twitter here!

30 Loka 201523min

Marvin is a Partner at 500 Startups, running the SF based accelerator program as well as investing in Seed stage start ups. Prior to 500 Marvin is a 10.5 year veteran of Yahoo! Inc., having held roles in various departments from Sales, Business Development, Ad Operations and Marketing and presently serves on the boards/advisory boards of several internet advertising and ad technology companies across the globe. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Marvin make his move into technology and the investing game? 2.) How was Marvin's time at Yahoo? How did Marvin see the company change over the 10 years he was there? How do you feel your position at Yahoo equipped you for 500 Startups? 3.) So coming from 10 years at Yahoo you could have had your pick of VCs to join. What was it about 500 that attracted you and why do you believe this very early stage is the biggest opportunity to exploit? 4.) 500 has now ironically invested in 1000+ startups, leading me to ask, what is the admissions process like and what Marvin's criteria at 500 for investment decisions? What are the key metrics you look at? 5.) How does Marvin respond to the notion that investing with 500 Startups removes the talent of investing through the spray and pray method? 6.) Now 500 Startups has recently raises an new $85m fund, alongside a new fund of $30m for Japan, $10m for South East Asia and a $10m fund for Thailand. So firstly, does this prove that the 500 model is successfully scaling? What does the future hold for 500? Where do you see the most innovation and progress? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Marvin's Fave Book:The Art of Worldly Wisdom, The 4 Hour Work Week Marvin's Fave Productivity Tool: Evernote, Calendly.com Marvin's Fave Blog: James Clear, James Altucher, Tim Ferriss, Fred Wilson, Mark Suster Marvin's Most Interesting Investments: Neighborly, Agfunder As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Marvin and 500 on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here! We would like to say a special thank you to our partner for this very special 500 Startups Feature Week, LawTrades, the go to place for startups and VCs to get their legal work done. For all 20VC listeners LawTrades are offering a special $150 off your first piece of legal work when you mention ‘The Twenty Minute VC’. You can follow them on Twitter here!

28 Loka 201527min

Matt Lerner is a Distro Partner with 500 Startups, and runs their London office. He specializes in conversion optimization, analytics, engagement and retention. As a member of the in-house growth (AKA “Distro”) team, he partners with 500 portfolio companies to help them build growth engines and scale. Previously, as a 500 Startups Mentor, Matt helped over 40 companies develop and execute growth strategies. Prior to joining 500 Startups, he worked as a Marketing Director at PayPal, where he built and managed three growth teams that generated hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue across the funnel. Here are some of Matt's amazing growth hacking slide decks: 10 Growth Hacking Tools To Disrupt Your Competitors Growth Hacking 101 For your chance to win a signed copy of Brad Feld's amazing Venture Deals, all you have to do is click the click to tweet link here: http://ctt.ec/C61w6 and you will be entered into the competition. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Matt made his move from Paypal to VC with 500Startups? 2.) What is the mission at 500 in London with the Distro? What is the investment thesis? Preferred round? Sector? What process do you take the companies through when they are with you in the Dojo? 3.) What does growth hacking really mean? Is it not another BS new techie term? 4.) What has Matt found to be some of the most effective growth hacks and why? What are the biggest mistakes companies make with regards to growth? How can they avoid them? 5.) When does Matt think a company should start to focus on growth? 6.) Who does Matt personally admire and think has been extremely effective and why? What campaigns or pieces of work have led him to this conclusion? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Matt's Recent Investments: Tom Beverly: Fy, Tamatem Matt's Fave Book: Do You Talk Funny: The Guide To Public Speaking, The One Thing You Need To Know Matt's Fave Newsletter: Doug Scott, Susan Su: Distro Snack, Tim Ferriss Podcast Matt's Growth Hacking Idols: Dave McClure: Pirate Metrics Talk, Sean Ellis: Inventor of Growth Hacking Term, Andy Johns @ WealthFront, As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Matt and 500 Startups on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here! We would like to say a special thank you to our partner for this very special 500 Startups Feature Week, LawTrades, the go to place for startups and VCs to get their legal work done. For all 20VC listeners LawTrades are offering a special $150 off your first piece of legal work when you mention 'The Twenty Minute VC'. You can follow them on Twitter here!

26 Loka 201528min

Joining us in the hotseat today is a young man who is insanely smart, he skipped 4 grades in school and graduated University at just 17, at which point he moved to the states on his own and within months was working alongside tech legends Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson at Digg. However, it was not long before he started his own company Kiip, a category-creating mobile rewards network that is redefining mobile advertising through an innovative platform that leverages "moments of achievement" in games and apps to simultaneously benefit users, developers and advertisers. If you have not guessed it by now, shame on you, it is of course, the incredible Brian Wong, one of the youngest people to ever raise VC funding receiving investment from the likes of Hummer Winblad, previous guest at Transmedia Capital Chris Redlitz (Episode 26), True Ventures and many more. For the chance to win Brad Feld’s amazing book, Venture Deals, all you have to do is head on over to ProductHunt’s new podcast section and upvote this episode of The Twenty Minute VC if you enjoyed it, by clicking here! A huge thank you to our sponsors for today's show, LawTrades, the marketplace that connects startups & VCs to awesome attorneys to get their legal work done at the best price! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Brian start his career? What is the Brain Wong origin snapshot? 2.) What was it about Fred Wilson that made Brian most wanting to talk to him above all other VCs when he made the move to NY? 3.) What was it like working with amazing founders like Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson? What were Brian's biggest takeaways from the experience? 4.) As a 19 year old, how difficult was it raising capital for your startup? Has it become harder raising further rounds from seed to series A to growth rounds? 5.) How have Brian's board of directors helped or hindered along the Kiip journey? How do experienced executives respond to working with such a young CEO and does age make it difficult to retain top talent? 6.) With the evolution of technology and progression of time, how are Kiip addressing the growing competitive market and how are you navigating Kiip into new social media channels? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Brian's Fave Book: Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely Brian Fave Blog: Inside.com by Jason Calacanis Brian's Fave Productivity Tool: Evernote, Box As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Brian on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

23 Loka 201531min

Weston Gaddy is a Senior Principal at Bain Capital Ventures where he focuses on investments in early-stage companies and assists the portfolio operations group. Weston is also a YC alum with Frogmetrics, a handheld survey device company, he co-founded in college and received funding from Founders Fund, Y Combinator and Alexis Ohanian at Reddit. Outisde of the tech and VC world Weston was a Weston worked as a strategy consultant for media, financial service, and consumer product clients at Bain & Company in New York. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Weston make his way into the technology and VC? 2.) What was Weston's biggest takeaway from the YC experience? Has the experience impacted his investing strategy? 3.) Why is the world of branding changing from dominant players using traditional mainstream channels to a more open opportunity for startups to connect with consumers? What is changing? 4.) On the topic of brand loyalty how brands create brand loyalty in the fickle generation of young millenials often with a mercenary outlook? 5.) What sectors have most opportunity to exploit this revolution in branding? Why do you say those sectors? Have you based any of your investments around these assumptions? 6.) How important is it for VCs to specialize and have superb sector knowledge in something? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Weston's Fave Book: The Sixth Extinction  Weston's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Dan Primack's TermSheet Weston's Most Recent Investment: Jet.com   As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Weston on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

21 Loka 201524min