![20VC: The Ultimate Guide to Scaling Marketplaces, Why Rule of 40 and EBITDA Optimisation is BS, How Founders & VCs Should Approach Market Sizing and Outcome Scenario Planning and Why Europe is Failing with Vinted CEO, Thomas Plantenga & Alex Taussig](https://podmestorage.blob.core.windows.net/podcast-images/88774527DEA2A56D1ABA236EBDAFC9B1_small.jpg)
20VC: The Ultimate Guide to Scaling Marketplaces, Why Rule of 40 and EBITDA Optimisation is BS, How Founders & VCs Should Approach Market Sizing and Outcome Scenario Planning and Why Europe is Failing with Vinted CEO, Thomas Plantenga & Alex Taussig
Om episode
Thomas Plantenga is the CEO @ Vinted, one of the fastest-growing marketplaces in the world with a valuation of $4.5BN. Prior to becoming CEO, Thomas worked with a range of organisations including Bookaboat, OLX, Sellit/Wallapop and FJLabs. Alex Taussig is a General Partner @ Lightspeed and co-leads the fund's Consumer investment team. Alex's portfolio includes the likes of All Day Kitchens, Archive Resale, Daily Harvest, Faire, Found, Frubana, Keychain, Kikoff, Vinted, YaySay, and Zola. In Today's Episode with Thomas Plantenga and Alex Taussig We Discuss: 1. The CEO Who Did Not Want to be CEO: How did Thomas come to be CEO @ Vinted? Why did he not want the job at first? What does Thomas know now that he wishes he had known when he started? 2. The Mechanics of the Fastest Growing Marketplace: What is the single most important metric for Vinted? How does Vinted determine what market to open next? What do they look for? How does Vinted think about depth vs breadth in each country? What is the AOV today? How does it vary by country? How long does it take for each country to be cash flow positive? 3. The Biggest BS in Startups: Rule of 40 and EBITDA: Why does Thomas think VC's obsession with "Rule of 40" is BS? Why does Thomas believe EBITDA optimization is BS and useless? What are the hardest elements of scaling a marketplace that no one knows? 4. The Bull, Bear and Investor Approach to Vinted: Alex, what was Lightspeed's pre and post-mortem when investing in Vinted? How does Lightspeed analyze TAM and market sizing when investing? What was Lightspeed's single biggest concern when investing in Vinted? 5. Europe: A Hub of Innovation or a Retirement Home: Does Thomas believe that European young people have a worse work ethic than those in the US? Is Thomas concerned by the state of regulation hampering innovation in Europe? What can be done to improve work ethic and the state of regulation today? Why is Alex and Lightspeed more bullish than ever on Europe today?
Nyeste episoder
![The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch](https://podmestorage.blob.core.windows.net/podcast-images/B7FDBBFE617609B012E714D3AC1ADB10_small.jpg)
20VC: Turning a $15M Investment in Monday into $1.5BN in Cash | The Strategy Behind a 37x DPI $45M Fund | The Three Step Process to Selling Positions that has Netted Top Percentile Returns with Avi Eyal, Co-Founder @ Entrée Capital
![The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch](https://podmestorage.blob.core.windows.net/podcast-images/D523E8CE922BF9B19501A10A1ABA6037_small.jpg)
20VC: LLMs Are Reaching a Stage of Diminishing Returns: What is the Next S Curve | The Bull & Bear Case for China's Ability to Challenge the US' AI Capabilities | How AI Changes the Future of War & How Agents Will Reshape Society with Matt Clifford @ EF
![The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch](https://podmestorage.blob.core.windows.net/podcast-images/E07DCE56E0F65D6635D7BEE58C19D593_small.jpg)
20VC: Raising $126M Across 3 Rounds in Just 6 Months, Being the Youngest Founder of a Unicorn Company | But Everything Was Not as it Seemed: The Real Story of Vise: The Regrets, Mistakes and Mis-Hires with Vise's Samir Vasavada
![The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch](https://podmestorage.blob.core.windows.net/podcast-images/EC54EB4DFABBED0EA2D0B3658C3869D9_small.jpg)
20VC: Klaviyo's Andrew Bialecki on Going Public in an IPO Winter, Is Klaviyo Under-Priced in Public Markets and Why, Why Every VC Turned Klaviyo Down in the Early Days & How Shopify's Partnership Changed the Game
![The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch](https://podmestorage.blob.core.windows.net/podcast-images/361220C2885877FA1594AEA55B5A49E3_small.jpg)
20VC: Why Foundation Model Performance is Not Diminishing But Models Are Commoditising, Why Nvidia Will Enter the Model Space and Models Will Enter the Chip Space & The Right Business Model for AI Software with David Luan, Co-Founder @ Adept
![The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch](https://podmestorage.blob.core.windows.net/podcast-images/C554204938F333F0BB96310FAF7CA050_small.jpg)
20Growth: How Revolut Acquired Their First 10M Users: Tips, Tactics and Strategies From the Revolut Product & Growth Playbook with Val Scholz, Former Head of Growth @ Revolut
![The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch](https://podmestorage.blob.core.windows.net/podcast-images/C6ABA74C1931C968B60A343EEBBA16E3_small.jpg)
20VC: Foundation Models are the Fastest Depreciating Asset in History, Lina Kahn is a Threat to American Capitalism, PE is Not Coming to Save the M&A Market & How China Could Overtake the US in the AI Race with Michael Eisenberg
![The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch](https://podmestorage.blob.core.windows.net/podcast-images/849C16ABD052061AD1CA313A6A6AD979_small.jpg)
20VC: Index's Danny Rimer on Investing Lessons from Hits like Figma, Discord and Etsy to Missing Snapchat, Airbnb, Facebook & Spotify | Why Valuation is a Trap and Market Sizing, Signalling and Sector/Geo-Specific Funds are all Noise
![The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch](https://podmestorage.blob.core.windows.net/podcast-images/1A64A9904AAAD32109FDB51209877892_small.jpg)
20Product: Loom CPO Janie Lee on Three Core Skills that Make the Best PMs, How to Find, Pick and Train the Best PM Talent and Lessons from OpenDoor and Rippling on Product Breadth, Pricing and Talent Density
![The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch](https://podmestorage.blob.core.windows.net/podcast-images/33CDD0890272A42957ED3B7CADD95009_small.jpg)