20VC: a16z's Jeff Jordan on The Ultimate Guide to Investing in Marketplaces, Two Core Features to Look for in All Marketplace Investments, Why Fragmented Supply is so Important & Lessons from Airbnb, Pinterest and Instacart on What Makes the Best Cohorts

Dhananja Jayalath is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Athos, creating the new standard for fitness by changing the way we train the human body. Athos have funding from our friends at Social Capital, Felix Capital and DCM Ventures just to name a few of their investors. Prior to Athos, DJ turned down a job with Apple straight from University to pursue his vision of creating the next generation of consumer fitness wearables with Athos. In Today's Episode with DJ You Will Learn: How DJ went from University to turning down Apple to founding Athos? How did DJ come to meet Chamath @ Social? How was the fundraising experience? What did Athos do well and what would DJ like to improve for the next round? How does DJ approach iteration and testing within product testing at Athos? What are the lessons DJ has learned in the manufacturing and iteration process with Athos? How does DJ approach business models for Athos today? Does DJ agree that the winners of hardware will be determined by software? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: DJ's Fave Book: Velocity: The 7 New Laws For A World Gone Digital As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and DJ on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

5 Aug 201620min

Steve Schlafman is an early stage investor @ RRE Ventures, where he specialises on marketplaces, mobile services, and hardware. Steve is responsible for RRE's investments in theSkimm, Hightower, TinyBop, Breather, and Managed by Q. Prior to joining RRE as a Principal, Steve was a Principal and rockstar seed investor at Lerer Ventures. Before becoming a venture capitalist, Steve worked at Stickybits Inc. and Turntable.fm, and served as Director of Venture Investments at The Kraft Group. Steve also worked at Massive Inc. and at Microsoft, where he focused on Biz Dev Strategy and Corporate Finance. In Today's Episode with Steve You Will Learn: How Steve made his way into VC from Microsoft, to Kraft to startup to VC? Why does Steve think Seed to Series A is such a different ball game? What are the different characteristics encompassed within each? With such little data at seed, what does Steve's DD process look like? How does that affect his investment decision making process @ RRE? What is the valuation comparison between Seed and Series A? How is this determined and how has this changed since Steve's time at Lerer? Why do the best markets often appear small and become meaningful? How does Steve look to detect these small markets? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Steve's Fave Book: Who (Hiring Process), Work (Hiring @ Google), Leading (Michael Moritz) Steve's Fave Blog or Newsletter: AVC, Stratechery, The Skimm Steve's Most Recent Investment: Brightwheel As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Steve on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

3 Aug 201624min

Justin Kan is a Partner @ world renowned, Y Combinator. The birthplace of the likes of Airbnb, Reddit, Dropbox, Stripe, Zenefits and many more incredible companies. Prior to YC, Justin co-founded SocialCam, acquired by Autodesk for $60m and Twitch.tv, the world's leading video platform and community for gamers, acquired by Amazon for $970m in 2014. In Today's Episode with Justin You Will Learn: How Justin came to found Twitch.tv and then later made the transition into VC with YC? Having been a YC alum, how has Justin seen YC as an institution change over time? How have the interviews, demo days, mentoring arrangements altered? How can YC keep the same quality of startup treatment with the mass scaling taking place? YC always positions itself as an accompaniment to the VC industry, does the new $700m YC growth fund not directly compete against VCs? What 3 qualities does Justin believes all good investors must have? How has Justin looked to establish his own personal brand? What has worked and what has not? Justin is very bullish on Snapchat, why so? What makes Justin so excited for the platform? How does Justin use it to such success? What would Justin like to see change in the platform? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Justin's Fave Book: Shogun Justin's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Nuzzel & The Information As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Justin on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

1 Aug 201626min

Amir Elaguizy is the Founder & CEO @ YC backed, Cratejoy, the website builder and backend for subscription e-commerce stores. Cratejoy have funding from the likes of General Catalyst, Andreesen Horowitz, Y Combinator and Charles River Ventures With regards to Amir, he previously founded Market Zero, a poker software company which was acquired by Zynga, where he then spent time as a game CTO. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Amir came to be an entrepreneur, got acquired by Zynga and then started Cratejoy? 2.) With the recent acquisition of Dollar Shave Club, the subscription e-commerce business is hot, why does Amir think most people misunderstand the space? 3.) Amir previously said, 'owning recruiting is the single most important thing you can do', why does he believe this? Does Amir believe that the early team might not necessarily be the team to evolve from a $1m business to a $20m business? 4.) What is the difference between foundational team members and mercenary team members? What are the signs an individual is worth spending time to grow with? 5.) Amir previously said, 'most people have never received true direct feedback on performance', how does Amir look to differentiate himself? Is it suitable for the leadership to be the bad guy? 6.) How can the firing process be approached with respect and dignity? Should it ever be a surprise? If it is a surprise what does that suggest about your leadership previously? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Amir's Fave Book: Hard Thing About Hard Things Amir's Fave Podcasts: The Twenty Minute VC, SaaStr As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Amir 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 Snapchat here! This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to designers from around the world. How Does It Work? Once you have launched your brief, designers will begin submitting quality designs for you to review. With some constructive feedback, you can quickly generate a large gallery of designs that really do fit your needs. You can have exactly what you need within just three days. Once you have selected your favourite design, you will be sent all the files you require to update your branding. If you don't like any of the submitted designs, then DesignCrowd offers a money back guarantee. So checkout designcrowd.com/VC and enter the promo code VC100 to get an astonishing $100 off your next project.

29 Jul 201626min

Sean Flynn is a Managing Partner @ Shasta Ventures where he invests in mobile-enabled consumer Internet and enterprise software companies. Sean has led Shasta's investments in Dollar Shave Club, Whisper and serves on the board of directors for the likes of TimeHop, Zefr, Swipely, Bloc and TigerText. Before joining Shasta, Sean worked at Yahoo, where he focused on growing the company's communication and messaging products such as Yahoo! Mail, Messenger, Groups and Flickr. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Sean made his way into VC from the titan that is Yahoo? Now today I want to do something slightly different and do a myth busting episode, take a couple of sectors and discuss whether they are truths and complexities to the core statement. 2.) Starting with the most common assumption in VC that it is all about team, to what extent does Sean place team ahead of product and is this a slight misconception? 3.) Many are saying mobile is a dying space. Sean previously said, 'it is not dead yet'. Why is there promise for mobile? What will be the catalyst of it's death? How does this affect Sean's investment decision making? 4.) Another much hyped topic is AR/VR, is the excitement surround AR and VR justified? Where does Sean stand on investing in the installation phase of cycles? 5.) Similar to AR/VR is the hype surround bots justified? What will be the sustainable business model for bots? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Sean's Fave Book: What Do You Do With An Idea Sean's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Nuzzel, 538 Blog Sean's Most Recent Investment: Tally As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Sean 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 Snapchat here! This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to designers from around the world. How Does It Work? Once you have launched your brief, designers will begin submitting quality designs for you to review. With some constructive feedback, you can quickly generate a large gallery of designs that really do fit your needs. You can have exactly what you need within just three days. Once you have selected your favourite design, you will be sent all the files you require to update your branding. If you don't like any of the submitted designs, then DesignCrowd offers a money back guarantee. So checkout designcrowd.com/VC and enter the promo code VC100 to get an astonishing $100 off your next project.

27 Jul 201629min

Semil Shah is the founder of Haystack, an early stage investment firm now investing out of it's third fund, with previous investments being Instacart, DoorDash, Managed by Q. In the past he has also been a consultant to some of the leading funds in the valley including the likes of Kleiner Perkins, DFJ, General Catalyst and more. If that was not enough, Shah also has an extensive career in media having been a contributor for both TechCrunch and the Harvard Business Review in the past. Due to all of this Shah was listed by Marc Andreesen as one of his '55 Unknown Rockstars in Tech'. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Semil made his way into VC? How did he come to create Haystack? 2.) What were the challenges and concerns for Semil in raising and establishing his own fund? 3.) Question from Michelle Tandler: How does Semil send deals through to Series A? What is his 'cool' process? What are the commonalities of those that make it to Series A and those that do not? 4.) How has Semil approached the aspect of personal VC branding? How does he evaluate the rise of the personal VC brand in the last few years? 5.) Why does Semil believe he is not 'founder friendly' in the conventional sense? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Semil's Fave Book: Burmese Days by George Orwell Semil's Most Recent Investment: AquaCloud As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Semil 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 Snapchat here! This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to designers from around the world. How Does It Work? Once you have launched your brief, designers will begin submitting quality designs for you to review. With some constructive feedback, you can quickly generate a large gallery of designs that really do fit your needs. You can have exactly what you need within just three days. Once you have selected your favourite design, you will be sent all the files you require to update your branding. If you don't like any of the submitted designs, then DesignCrowd offers a money back guarantee. So checkout designcrowd.com/VC and enter the promo code VC100 to get an astonishing $100 off your next project.

25 Jul 201623min

David Helgason is the Founder and Board Member @ Unity 3D. The company that recently announced a new $181m Series C, valuing the company at $1.5bn. Unity's platform has revolutionized the game industry by allowing any size studio from Indie to Triple-A to create beautiful and compelling games and experiences and monetize them with their advertising and analytics services. As for David, he served as CEO of Unity from its founding in 2003 right up until 2014 taking the company through numerous funding rounds including from the one and only Sequoia Capital. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How David came to found Unity 3D? 2.) How pivotal was the rise of the App stores to the rise of Unity 3D? What does David make of Apple's recent announcement to add paid search and subscription pricing? 3.) How does David evaluate the current gaming landscape? What does he not like abou the industry and how the major players are operating? 4.) What are David's thoughts on the emerging platforms like AR and VR? How does he incorporate them into Unity's future product roadmap? 5.) How was the fundraising process for David with Unity? How did the Sequoia investment happen and what has it been like to work with them and Roelof Botha? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: David's Fave Book: Guns, Germs & Steel As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and David 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 Snapchat here! This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to designers from around the world. How Does It Work? Once you have launched your brief, designers will begin submitting quality designs for you to review. With some constructive feedback, you can quickly generate a large gallery of designs that really do fit your needs. You can have exactly what you need within just three days. Once you have selected your favourite design, you will be sent all the files you require to update your branding. If you don't like any of the submitted designs, then DesignCrowd offers a money back guarantee. So checkout designcrowd.com/VC and enter the promo code VC100 to get an astonishing $100 off your next project.

22 Jul 201624min

Alex Bangash is a Managing Director @ Rumson Group where he helps his clients invest in some of the best performing funds around the world. Alex has done just that having made over 50 investments into funds across the globe. If that was not enough he is also the founder of Trusted Insight, the worlds largest platform for institutional investors and backing from the first investors or founder @ Facebook, LinkedIn, Mint and Match.com. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Alex made his way into the world of investing in VC funds? 2.) Why does Alex believe the whole finance industry is backward looking? Is this why he thinks there is so much VC churn? 3.) Why does Alex believe VC is always about access? Is this why Alex has such a strong preference for funds that are also platforms? 4.) Why does Alex believe true early stage is getting smaller and smaller? How does his return expectations differ according to the size of the fund? 5.) What happens when funds do not go to plan or do not have notable exits to raise fund II? What happens then? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Alex's Fave Book: Ben Horowitz: Hard Thing About Hard Things, Peter Thiel: Zero To One Alex's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Paul Graham As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Alex 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 Snapchat here! This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to designers from around the world. How Does It Work? Once you have launched your brief, designers will begin submitting quality designs for you to review. With some constructive feedback, you can quickly generate a large gallery of designs that really do fit your needs. You can have exactly what you need within just three days. Once you have selected your favourite design, you will be sent all the files you require to update your branding. If you don't like any of the submitted designs, then DesignCrowd offers a money back guarantee. So checkout designcrowd.com/VC and enter the promo code VC100 to get an astonishing $100 off your next project.

20 Jul 201626min