From Startups to Secondary VC Investments: Dave McClure's Insights from 500 Startups and Paypal

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Hosts: * Yuri Rabinovich https://www.linkedin.com/in/byuric * Niko Leon https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikoleon

In this episode, we speak to Dave McClure, Founder and Managing Partner at Practical Venture Capital, Founder and Managing Partner at 500 Startups. The conversation navigates between founding and funding, providing valuable insights from both perspectives. Few venture capitalists have Dave's unique dual experience, and he shares his highly successful investing strategies that have led to picking unicorns and other high-return investments. Dave began his career by focusing on early-stage startups as an angel and through 500 Startups. However, Practical Venture Capital involves investing in secondary GP LP fund positions. He presents a compelling argument for his shift to this asset class, highlighting its advantages and opportunities.

Episode Breakdown * 0.00 - Introduction * 2:47 - Early-stage investing * 19:30 - Working at Paypal * 22:50 - Investing in secondaries: buying GP LP positions at top VC funds * 33:30 - Valuations * 54:55 - Fundraising

Follow Dave: * X: https://x.com/davemcclure * Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemcclure * Company: https://practicalvc.com

Dave's bio Dave has been a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor for over 25 years. He has invested in hundreds of startups around the world, including 10+ IPOs and 40+ unicorns: Credit Karma, Twilio, SendGrid, Lyft, The RealReal, Talkdesk, Grab, Intercom, Canva, Udemy, Lucid, GitLab, Reddit, Stripe, Bukalapak. Before launching PVC in 2019, he was the founding partner of 500 Startups, a global VC firm with $1B AUM that has invested in over 2,500 companies and 5,000 founders across 75 countries. Dave created 20 VC funds under the 500 brand and invested in 20 other VC funds worldwide. Dave began his investing career at Founders Fund, making seed-stage investments in 40 companies, resulting in 4 unicorns and 3 IPOs. He led the Credit Karma seed round in 2009, acq INTU, more than 400X return. His $3M portfolio returned over $200M ~65X in under 10 years. Before he became an investor, Dave was the Director of Marketing at PayPal from 2001-2004. He was also the founder/CEO of Aslan Computing, acquired by Servinet in 1998. Dave graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a BS in Engineering / Applied Mathematics.