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 should view every interaction with a VC. You should come across in such a personally compelling way that they’re drawn to you. That’s the bar they are holding you to. The right amount of diligence is a great topic to think about, whether a company is ready for investment or not. This episode was made for founders getting ready for investment, or founders who want to start asking the right questions about their work. Ben and David discuss in depth what you can reasonably expect from VCs conducting diligence, and how to set yourself up for long-term value creation. Most importantly, Ben and David discuss the questions you should be prepared to answer and the questions you should be prepared to have asked about you.Sponsors:Koyfin: https://bit.ly/acquiredkoyfin Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast:Acquired.fm@AcquiredFM
7 Juli 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 going to interact with a very tiny subset of your feature set. And so, you’re better off usually improving something that 80% of [customers] interact with that is really core than things around the edges that are more functionality.” - Phil Kimmey We are very excited to be joined by Phil Kimmey, one of the co-founders of Rover (and a frequent member of various 30 under 30 lists), who designed Rover in its infant stages at a Startup Weekend! In this episode, we dive into Rover’s initial design, how the business model was proved, and wrap up with a lengthy discussion on Value-Add Features vs Data-Driven Features. Phil also provides his opinion on what makes new tech and development teams successful and explains why PayPal still sends Rover’s monthly summary statements to his parent’s house. Sponsors:Koyfin: https://bit.ly/acquiredkoyfinBe sure to follow the Acquired Podcast:Follow Acquired: @AcquiredFM, acquired.fmLinks from the Show:Conjoined Triangles of Success
13 Juni 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 an outlier in every way.”Ben & David reflect on what they’ve learned from the APLUSS IPOs so far, what’s ahead for Uber and Lyft, and tackle some longstanding listener questions.Sponsors:Koyfin: https://bit.ly/acquiredkoyfin Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast:Acquired.fm@AcquiredFM Links from the Show:Narrative Violations – Bedrock Capital
30 Maj 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 efficiency, you need both engines working in tandem and working effectively together.” Brian Tolkin, (@briantolkin)We’re super excited to be joined by Brian Tolkin, one of Uber’s first ~100 employees who built their “Product Ops” organization and then went on to lead Product Management for UberPOOL and all shared rides on the platform. We dive into the nitty gritty of how Uber built their “twin turbine” engine of decentralized real-world Ops and centralized Tech Product, and how the organization evolved as it scaled. We also cover Brian’s new role at OpenDoor and the tight ops + product coupling they’re building now in real estate.Sponsors:Koyfin: https://bit.ly/acquiredkoyfin Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast:Acquired.fm@AcquiredFMLinks from the Show:Stanford Venture Capital ClubBen Evans: The End of the Beginning (video)Lyft IPO (Acquired)Pre-Meeting Narrative ExampleOpenDoor.com
5 Maj 201945min
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 in this episode. If you're a founder, work at a startup, or are considering doing one of those someday, this episode is for you!Sponsors:Koyfin: https://bit.ly/acquiredkoyfin Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast:Acquired.fm@AcquiredFM Links from the Show:Acquired LP: Lyft EpisodeAcquired LP: Demystifying Corp Dev (Sara Adler)AR&D Letter of Intent to DEC Brad Feld: Venture DealsCooleyGo.comGAAPJeff Bezos, Vesting, and The Divorce Perkins Coie AcceleratorSeriesSeed.comStandard Series Seed Term Sheet [Link in Bio]
9 Apr 20191h 8min
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 “Global Retail Partners” in 1996 to its place today as the premier and largest tech investor in Southern California. We talk about rebranding the firm and choosing Upfront as a name, launching the Upfront Summit, what LA is "good and not good at", and Kevin’s thesis around gaming as a great place for venture investing.Sponsors:Koyfin: https://bit.ly/acquiredkoyfin
28 Mars 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 market that could be created could dwarf what we currently have, which is pretty humbling to think about.”Jake Saper, Emergence Capital (@jakesaper) We dive deep into the nitty gritty details of SaaS investing and company building with the best in the business, Jake Saper from Emergence Capital. Emergence has been around since the beginning of the SaaS industry and -uniquely for a venture firm- is entirely focused on early-stage investing within it. They were early investors in major successes like Salesforce, Veeva, SuccessFactors, Box and Yammer, and more recently, Gusto, Zoom, and many more. This episode is a must-listen for anyone investing in, operating in, or thinking about modern SaaS companies!Sponsors:Koyfin: https://bit.ly/acquiredkoyfin Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast:Acquired.fm@AcquiredFMLinks from the Show:Emergence CapitalEmergence Capital – “Series-A SaaS Metrics”Emergence Email Newsletter
5 Mars 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 public company boards, and how she operates as an investor now at Anthos Capital.Sponsors:Koyfin: https://bit.ly/acquiredkoyfin
26 Feb 201931min
