20VC: Greylock's Sarah Tavel on What Founders Need From A Good Investor and Why Products Need To Be 10X Better & Cheaper

Stewart Butterfield is the Founder & CEO @ Slack, the leading channel-based messaging platform, used by millions to align their teams, unify their systems and drive their businesses forward. Prior to their direct listing in June 2019, Stewart raised over $1.3Bn from the likes of Accel, Thrive, Softbank, Kleiner, IVP, T Rowe, GV and a16z to name a few. Prior to founding Slack, Stewart co-founded Flickr, a company he built into one of the largest web services in the world. Due to his many incredible successes, Stewart has been named to the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine, and one of the Top 50 Leaders by BusinessWeek. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Stewart made his way into the world of startups and came to found Flickr? What was his founding moment for the Slack journey? 2.) How does Stewart think about and assess his relationship to money? How has it changed over time? What does Stewart believe are the 3 levels of wealth? How does Stewart think about his identity being tied to the company? Is that a challenge? How does he mitigate it? 3.) How does Stewart describe his management style and philosophy today? How has it changed over time? How does Stewart approach reversible vs irreversible decisions? How does Stewart structure post-mortems? Why does Stewart believe effective entrepreneurship is like parkour? 4.) How does Stewart think about and advise on the debate between direct listing, IPO and SPAC? What has been better/worse and different since making the transition to being a public company? What have been some of the biggest surprises? 5.) Why does Stewart believe that for most companies, comprehension is the reason for the lack of adoption and customer acquisition? How does he look to solve that with Slack? What have been their biggest mistakes on messaging and branding? Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode Stewart's Favourite Book: Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box, Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, The Courage To Be Disliked As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

16 Marras 202043min

Dan Levine is a Partner @ Accel, one of the world's leading venture firms with a portfolio including the likes of Facebook, Slack, Qualtrics, UiPath and Deliveroo. As for Daniel, he actually joined Accel in 2010 before leaving to join Dropbox. At Dropbox, he worked on the platform team helping open the platform to third-party developers and launched and managed many of the company's developer-facing initiatives. Following Dropbox, he rejoined Accel and has led investments in Scale.ai, Mux, Vercel and Sentry to name a few. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Dan made his way into the world of venture with Accel? How that led to his joining Dropbox? What led to his re-joining Accel 3 years later? 2.) How does Dan assess the current state of the seed and Series A landscape? How does Dan analyse the rise of pre-emptive rounds? How does Dan determine when to lean in and pre-empt vs when not to? What does Dan think is the biggest myth about raising a Series A? 3.) How does Dan analyse multi-stage funds so actively entering seed? What has Accel's seed portfolio data shown? How many went on to raise a Series A? How many did Accel lead? How many companies died? What is the biggest problem this portfolio presents? 4.) How does Dan analyse the trio of people, product and market? How does Dan approach market sizing? How does Dan approach the risk associated with market timing? What risk is he willing to take? What is he not? When can one stretch on market? When is it a stretch too far? 5.) How does Dan evaluate the rise of solo capitalists? What does he see as the core pros and cons of the model? What are the pros and cons of the partnership model like Accel has? How does Dan evaluate the rise of investor personal brands today? What worries him? Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode Dan's Favourite Book: Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (Vintage) Dan's Most Recent Investment: Altinity As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

12 Marras 202044min

Derek Zanutto is a General Partner @ CapitalG, Alphabet's independent growth fund with investments in the likes of Stripe, UiPath, Looker, Robinhood and Lyft to name a few. At CapitalG, Derek has led investments in Collibra, Dataiku and Armis as well as sitting on numerous boards. Prior to CapitalG, Derek spent a decade investing in such companies as Uber, Airbnb, Lynda.com and CAA at investment firms TPG, Hellman & Friedman and GIC. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Derek made his way from the world of TPG and growth equity to being a GP with Alphabet's independent growth fund, CapitalG? 2.) Does Derek agree with Bill Gurley, "the biggest challenge is the over-supply of capital"? How does Derek see this changing with interest rate changes or lackof? How do interest rate changes impact later stage pricing? How does Derek assess his own relationship to price? 3.) How does Derek approach investments thinking through the bundling vs unbundling lens? What have been some core examples of this over the last decade? How does Derek assess market timing risk? What risks is he willing to take? How does he build a thesis ahead of meeting companies? 4.) What does Derek make of large later stage firms moving earlier and doing Seeds and Series A's? What do entrepreneurs need to know about these firms? What does Derek think about early-stage firms scaling into multi-stage firms? Why is stage specificity so important? 5.) What are the core economics of venture capital that all entrepreneurs need to understand? How do different GPs and funds have different motivations according to fund size? How do different funds approach carry allocation and fees? Why does this matter to founders? Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode Derek's Favourite Book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Derek's Most Recent Investment: Armis As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

9 Marras 202037min

Zach Weinberg is a Co-Founder of Operator Partners, operators funding operators, with no outside LPs, just their own capital. Fun fact, 20VC Fund has actually invested with them in 3 companies from Alt, Dooly.ai and Boom Pay. Prior to founding Operator Partners, Zach was the Co-founder/COO of Flatiron Health (acq @Roche for $2b) and before Flatiron Zach co-founded Invite Media (acq @Google for $81m). If that was not enough, Zach has also been an incredibly successful angel in the past with a portfolio including RigUp, Ro, Color, BlueApron and Plaid to name a few. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Zach made his way into the world of startups, came to found Flatiron (acq for $2Bn) and how that led to Operator Partners? 2.) How does Zach analyse his own personal capital allocation? How much in funds? How much in cash, equities, direct, credit etc etc? How does Zach analyse his relationship to money? How has it changed over time? How does Zach evaluate his relationship to risk? 3.) What does Zach make of the rise of pre-empted rounds? When should founders takem them vs reject them? How does Zach feel about multi-stage funds re-entering seed aggressively? How does he advise founders? What are the pros and cons of having multi-stage money? 4.) How does Zach think about the importance of ownership? How does Zach analyse the re-investment decision? How does he approach reserve allocation? How does Zach reflect on his own price sensitivity? How has his relationship to price and ownership changed with time? 5.) How does Zach feel about Brian Armstrong's piece on employees bringing their own political and external beliefs into the workplace? Why does Zach believe that companies are not a democracy? Why does Zach believe that we do not live in a democracy any longer? Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode Zach's Favourite Book: Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World Zach's Most Recent Investment: David Energy As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

6 Marras 202036min

Barry Eggers is a Founding Partner @ Lightspeed Venture Partners and currently Chair of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) Board of Directors. Lightspeed is one of the premier funds of the last decade with homeruns including Snapchat, Affirm, Mulesoft, Nutanix and Stitch Fix. Prior to LSVP, Barry spent close to 6 years as @ Cisco developing Cisco's initial M&A program and leading the company's first wave of acquisitions and integrations. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Barry made his way into the world of venture over 20 years ago and how he came to found one of today's leaders, Lightspeed? 2.) What are the implications of a Biden administration? How does this compare to a Trump administration? What can be done to mitigate the tax concerns around Biden's policies? How does Barry think about each candidate's stance on immigration? What are the challenges here? 3.) How will SPACs change the world of venture? What will it take for them to be viewed in the same class as IPOs? Why are they often better than direct listings? How does the rise of solo capitalists change the state of venture? What does Barry make of rolling funds being born? 4.) What does Barry believe we can do to swing the race pendulum in venture? What were Barry's biggest lessons in taking the Lightspeed partnership from 1 to 10 female partners? How can this be done with ethnic minorities also? What advice does Barry give to his counterpart GPs? 5.) How would Barry describe his own style of board membership? How has it changed over time? How does Barry keep his head in boards with many around him are losing theirs? What advice does Barry give to new board members adopting board seats for the first time? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Barry's Favourite Book: Channel Kindness: Stories of Kindness and Community As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

2 Marras 202029min

David Helgason is the Founder @ Unity, the company that gives content creators the tools to create innovative RT3D experiences and deliver better processes for almost every industry. Prior to their IPO in 2020, Unity raised from the likes of Sequoia, Thrive, DFJ, SilverLake and then individuals including Max Levchin and VMWare's Diane Greene. If that was not enough, David is currently a Partner @ Nordic Makers, a group of ten top Nordic angels working together to be the best angel investors in the Nordics. David also serves on the board of Labster, Realm.io and Quizup. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How David made his way from founding Unity in a cafe in Denmark to the $10Bn+ public company it is today? 2.) How would David describe his leadership style? How has it changed over time? What were the biggest challenges David faced as the Founding CEO? 3.) What was the decision-making behind David's transition out of the CEO role? What was challenging? What was key to make the transition successful? How did David know John Riccitiello was the right person for the role? How does David advise other founders contemplating the same? 4.) How does David analyse his own board management style? What are the most important elements a board member can do to help the company and founder? What makes Roelof Botha such a special board member to have? How does David advise new board members today to be successful? 5.) Why does David believe running a company is like a liberal art? How does David think about the importance of vision? How does David assess the current state of the European tech landscape? What can be done to improve it? How can investor approach change for the better? As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

29 Loka 202028min

Roleof Botha is a Partner @ Sequoia Capital, one of the world's leading venture firms with a portfolio including the likes of Airbnb, Instacart, Stripe, UiPath, Zoom, the list goes on. As for Roelof, at Sequoia he has led rounds into the likes of YouTube, Instagram, Eventbrite, Square, MongoDB, 23andMe and Unity Technologies to name a few. Before joining the world of venture, Roelof was the CFO @ Paypal playing a key role in their hyper-growth from 2000-2003. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Roelof go from actuary in South Africa to CFO @ Paypal? What were his biggest lessons from seeing Paypal burn $10M per month? How did Paypal lead to his joining Sequoia as a Partner? 2.) Market Evaluation: Does Roelof agree that the market is crazy today? How does today compare to prior vintages? How does Roelof assess the compression of fundraising timelines? With compressed timelines, how does he build relationships of trust with founders? 3.) Founder Evaluation: What were Roelof's lessons on founder assessment from Don Valentine? What matrix did Don teach Roelof to assess founders on? How does Roelof feel about the rise of competitive rounds? When should founders take them vs remain heads down on execution? 4.) Investment Mentality: How did Roelof prevent becoming too confident when early investments went well? How does Roelof prevent relying on past failures as a reason for turning down opportunities today? What can investors do to retain a very flexible mind? Why does Roelof believe you are only as good as your next investment? 5.) Sequoia's Edge: How does Roloef think about what it takes for Sequoia to retain it's edge at the top? How does Roloef measure the success of the Sequoia scout program? How did they structure it? How has the structure changed? What do they plan to do moving forward? 6.) Board Membership: How would Roloef evaluate his current style of board membership? How has that style changed over time? What elements did he find challenging? What advice would Roelof give to new board members adopting their first board seats? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Roelof's Favourite Book: Man's Search For Meaning Roelof's Most Recent Investment: mmhmm As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

26 Loka 202040min

Eoghan McCabe is a technology entrepreneur. He's started a number of companies, the most notable of which is Intercom, the conversational relationship platform. He was CEO of Intercom for nearly 10 years, during which he grew the company to hundreds of millions in annual revenue, nearly 700 employees, and raised nearly $250M from the likes of Kleiner Perkins, Index, Bessemer, and ICONIQ. He's also invested in dozens of companies including Stripe, Figma, SuperHuman, and Coda. In the summer of 2020 he moved to the role of Chairman of Intercom. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Eoghan made his way into the world of startups from Ireland and came to build one of the Valley's greats with Intercom? 2.) How does Eoghan thinking about living and thriving with a chip on one's shoulder? What does Eoghan advise in terms of one's search for their true selves? What were his biggest learnings in his search? What does Eoghan advise people who maybe feel they have lost themselves? 3.) Having been CEO of a $Bn company for close to 10 years, how does Eoghan think about dealing with the weight of expectation placed on shoulders? How did he manage it? How does he think about his identity being so tied to his company? 4.) In terms of being one's authentic self, how can one achieve this while also respecting their stakeholders who may hold different views? How does Eoghan think about being an authentic leader vs bowing down to the demands of your team? What is the right balance? 5.) Why does Eoghan think that vision can actually be limiting? How does Eoghan think about stress testing one's vision and ambition? What adversity from early VCs did Eoghan have to fight against? How does Eoghan encourage dissent and debate within his teams? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Eoghan's Fave Book: Breathe: simple breathing techniques for a calmer, happier life As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

22 Loka 202030min