Due Diligence
Could I see myself or my wife working for/with this CEO? Would I quit my job and go work for this person? That’s the crux of it. If you’re a CEO out raising money, that is the lens with which you shou...
7 Jul 201958min
Building tech and product for marketplaces (with Rover cofounder Phil Kimmey)
“There’s often a desire to keep adding features because ‘Oh wouldn’t it be cool if we could do this or that?’ The reality is if a customer is only spending five minutes with your product, they’re only...
13 Jun 201950min
Reflections on the APLUSS IPOs so far, Uber+Lyft+regulators+autonomy, and listener Q&A
“Uber, pre-IPO, had raised more money than Lyft’s current market cap. And now, because they raised 9B in an IPO, they’re close to total money ever raised to being 2x of Lyft’s current market cap. It’s...
30 Mai 201955min
Building Product & Ops at Uber (with Brian Tolkin)
[on Uber’s Early Organizational Structure] “Uber always thought about it as a twin-turbine plane: maybe for a short period of time, you could operate on one engine. But if you want to operate at full ...
5 Mai 201944min
VC Term Sheets
Ben & David take their turn at the "power ballad" of VC blogging/podcasting, explaining how venture term sheets work. From valuation to pro rata rights to founder vesting, we leave no stone unturned i...
9 Apr 20191h 7min
Reinventing Upfront and building LA (with Upfront partner Kevin Zhang)
We’re joined by Upfront Ventures partner Kevin Zhang to discuss the evolution of both Upfront as a venture firm and the LA tech ecosystem more broadly. We cover the journey from Upfront’s founding as ...
28 Mar 20191h 6min
The Art of SaaS Investing (with Jake Saper, Partner at Emergence Capital)
“80% of the worlds workforce doesn’t sit at a desk, and 95% of the world’s software is built for people who sit at a desk. Once people build software for the other 80%, the size of the addressable mar...
5 Mar 20191h 24min
Beyond Instagram with Emily White
We continue the conversation with Emily White, covering topics including her career path, what it was like working with Sheryl Sandberg for so many years, her time at Snap, her experience serving on p...
26 Feb 201931min
