The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch1 Mars 2021

20VC: Klarna Founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski on Scaling Europe's Most Valuable Private Tech Company, How To Motivate and Challenge Your Team Most Effectively & The Biggest Lessons From Working with Mike Moritz

Sebastian Siemiatkowski is the Founder and CEO @ Klarna, the company that makes online shopping simple, allowing you to buy what you need today and pay later. To date, Sebastian has raised over $2.1Bn for the company from the likes of Sequoia, Silver Lake, Blackrock, DST, Northzone, Creandum and even Snoop Dog to name a few. Klarna has been an incredible 16-year journey for Sebastian with it now being the most valuable private technology company in Europe with over 3,500 employees.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

I. The Importance Of Learning To Learn Fast

What is the best way to learn fast?

"People talk about it like there's this learning curve, and the best spot is at the place where you're challenged to the precise point where you're almost giving up, but not entirely. That's exactly it.

"And I have this amazing swim teacher for my children, her name is Petra, and she's just fantastic. I just love watching her because she has this ability of taking my children in the pool and pushing them to that exact point where they are almost, almost giving up, and they're learning at such a pace. And if I can recreate such an environment in Klarna, if I can create an environment, if I can be part of creating an environment where we put people in that position where they just are exactly at that curve where they are challenged, supported, and kind of at the edge and being given the ability to learn really fast and really discover what it means to have an impact."

Does Sebastian compare his work to other companies'?

"I don't think that much about what other people or other companies or other things out there could have done different. And there's pros and cons to that. But the benefits of that is that it speeds up my learning. Because a lot of people – and I've realized that as I manage other people – is that because they're so obsessed with trying to think about what other people could have done differently, and why situations arose, and why it wasn't their responsibility and so forth, they spend a lot of time on that, because we've unfortunately been brought up in some kind of guilt that it's bad to do wrong, and it's bad if it's our fault, and you want to avoid that.

"And these psychological constraints, unfortunately, hinder people from developing much faster, because if you go into every situation and say, the only thing that's relevant here is what I could have done differently, what I could have learned from this – if that's the only thing, it's just like, whatever, I accept my responsibilities. What could I have done differently? If you only focus on that, you just learn much faster."

How does Sebastian transform his self-doubt into a positive?

"I think self-doubt is not nothing. It's not a bad thing, right? It's a very healthy thing, if it represents you continuously trying to understand, am I doing the right thing? Is this something that I want to do? Am I making the right decisions? So I think it's extremely healthy to do that. I'm not saying it's not painful or tough when you have it. But I think it's a very positive thing.

"I'm much more worried when people tell me they have no self-doubt. And then I'm like, uh-oh, because that means that you're not really reflecting on your actions, and you're not learning from them. So I wish I could give you something more comforting than that, but I would actually say enjoy it. Be happy that you have it, and it's gonna make you a better person."

II. Sebastian's Management Philosophy

What does Sebastian believe companies can learn from soccer?

"I love the fact that Michael Moritz wrote this book that I still haven't read, so it's kind of funny that I'm referring to it, but he wrote this book about Ferguson, that manager of Manchester United. And I think it's very relevant, because today, the saying is that for people to be motivated at work, they need to have a higher purpose, the company needs to do something good, and so forth. And I am not disputing that, that is very true that it contributes to people's sense of purpose, and so forth.

But before you even get to that level, we have to ask ourselves, what is it really that makes people motivated and enjoy themselves? And I think when I think about that, I often look at sports, because why do people love soccer? What's the higher purpose of winning Champions League? People say, oh, there's a massive higher purpose, but not entirely, you're not really making the planet better by winning. Still, people are massively engaged in these things. Why?

"Because it's a team effort, there are clear roles, you know exactly what you're supposed to do – I'm supposed to put the ball in that score. And then it's very clear how you win, there is a referee that stops people from cheating. And so there's a lot of things in that environment that makes it motivating, that makes people engaged, and those things are usually lacking in companies."

How do you know when someone is at that crucial point of the learning curve?

"The problem with a company is that it's a much more complex environment with a lot of other things going on in parallel in people's lives. And so I have definitely occasionally missed to see that people are beyond that point."

"In Sweden, there's this course called Situation Adopted Management, which basically means that there is no single management technique. You look into the situation, you try to understand it from multiple angles. And then depending on where that individual is, and how you perceive the mental status, and the mood of that individual, and so forth, you try to adapt. Either you coach or you challenge or you instruct or you do different things. There's not a single methodology that will allow you to deal with those situations. But a lot of it is empathy. It's the ability to look at people and read them, and try to understand, and ask them questions, and understand where they are."

III. How Sebastian Manages Complexity At Scale

What are Sebastian's biggest lessons learned from Klarna growing to 3000+ people spread across multiple offices across the world?

It's the manager's job to deal with the complexity in a company
It's not for everyone

What role does Sebastian believe a manager should play in a company as it scales?

"I think a lot of times as a company grows, what ends up happening is the thing just becomes so complex. So management tries to organize the company in a way that makes sense to them and that is easy to understand for them. But the consequence of that often, unfortunately, is it makes no sense for the person who's actually doing the job. So they lose the purpose. Why am I coming to work? What are we trying to achieve? All of these things get lost.

"So what we said is, we have to do the exact opposite. The critical element is that the people who are actually supposed to do something – not the manager – the people actually supposed to do something, if they program or to do a marketing campaign, or whatever they're doing, they need to come to work every day and feel I know exactly why I'm coming, I know how I'm contributing, I know who I'm contributing for, I know what value I'm creating.

"And if that thing creates tons of complexity for us, as managers, because the whole system becomes much more complex, then that's what we're getting paid for. That's the one. That's why we're getting a good salary. Because we need to manage that complexity."

What does Sebastian look for in talent?

"Keep very close on the recruitment … Especially in a country like Sweden, a country where a typical saying is, alla ska komma med, which means, everyone should come, everyone should join. And it's very nice. And I appreciate that with Swedish culture, I'm not trying to really call it. I think it's fantastic and it's a fantastic society. But as a consequence, it took us some time to conclude something which maybe in the US or maybe even in the UK as it would have been much more obvious, which is that it's not a company for everyone. It is a company for the people that want to have that challenge, that want to be in that environment, that think that's interesting, that want to learn a lot fast, and want to get a lot of things done. And that's not everyone, and that's okay.

"Like when you play soccer – some people play soccer for fun, other people play to win the Champions League. People do it for different reasons. And they have different ambitions with it and different objectives with it. And the same applies to us.

"So it took us some time to realize that we need to tell people, look, just so you know, this is not going to be your standard company, you're going to be expected to do a hell of a lot of things, you're going to be expected to be challenged, you're going to expect it to do your utmost. And we're going to try to support you and help you and grow. So just know what you're getting into, before you get into it."

IV. Retail Banking 10 Years From Now

What does Sebastian see as the future of everyday banking services?

"One thing I would say, it's going to be a much smaller industry. And that's because it is ridiculous that moving money back and forth is a trillion-dollar industry. That is ridiculous. There is no good reason for that whatsoever. This is going to be a much more cost-efficient, much smaller revenue business than it is today. But even though it would be much smaller than it is today, it's still massive, and Klarna has the opportunity to be one big player in that industry, similar to what Tesla is doing in cars or whatever, that's what I want to do. And I feel we have all the prerequisites to accomplish that."

"There's going to be this push that's going to transform this industry and the people are going to lose on it are the suits in the marble offices in the city centers. That's where the pain is going to be felt, but the winner is going to be the consumer."

What do the next five years look like for Klarna?

"It's a little bit like self-driving cars – we all know it's going to happen, the question is when. And based on what I've seen in the last 15 years, and I've seen how retail has gone from retail to ecommerce and all these trends, this decade is going to be the disruption of retail banking.

"At the end of this decade, there will be a couple of new total players that will be very dominating in this space, and the rest will either cease to exist, will merge and try to acquire some of the new ones, or maybe a few of them will manage to reinvent themselves. But this is going to be an extremely interesting time."

Sebastian's Favourite Book: The Neverending Story

As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!

Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

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20VC: Scott Galloway on Are Billionaires Happy & The Impact of Money on Psychology and Self-Worth | Becoming a Better Father & Husband | Why We Should Drink More and Not Work From Home | The Tinder Effect & How it Makes Young Men Radical

Scott Galloway is a Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern, where he's taught for over two decades. He's the founder of several successful companies, including L2 (acquired by Gartner for over $150M), Red Envelope, and Prophet. He's a New York Times bestselling author of four books on business and tech, and co-hosts the award-winning Pivot podcast. Galloway also serves on the boards of The New York Times Company and Panera, and his public talks have been viewed tens of millions of times globally. In Today's Episode We Discuss: 02:00 – How to Win in a New Economy of AI 06:00 – Should We Break Up Big Tech? 08:00 – Why Young People Have a Right to Be Angry? 11:00 – Why the Tax Code Is Rigged Against the Young 13:00 – Tax Changes That Would Make Young People Rich Again 17:00 – The Tinder Effect: Why Men Are Angry 20:00 – The Loneliness Epidemic in Men 23:00 – Remote Work & The Case for Alcohol 26:00 – Why Richer Families are Happier Families 30:00 – The Truth About Kids and Career 34:00 – Are Billionaires Happy? 38:00 – Becoming a Better Son, Father, Partner 46:00 – Behind the Persona: Who Scott Galloway Really Is

7 Juli 1h 10min

20VC: Figma's IPO: The Full Breakdown | Index Returns $3.5BN on Two Deals | Why Melio's $2.5BN Acquisition is "Discouraging" | Asana's New CEO and the Great Founder Exodus | Oracle's $30BN AI Deal and What it Means for Incumbents

AGENDA: 00:00 – $400B in AI CapEx: Rational Investment or Madness? 05:00 – Figma's IPO: Rule of 80, $1.5B in cash, 40% margins. Unreal. 08:00 – Adobe Screwed the Deal—Should They Have Just Bought Canva? 16:00 – Pay-to-Play Deals: Heroic Hail Mary or Guaranteed Write-Off? 21:30 – How Index Is Returning $3.5B on 2 Deals 24:00 – Melio's $2.5B Exit: Insane Growth… So Why Did They Sell?! 35:00 – Massive Penthouses and the Death of Focus: AI Founders Beware 39:00 – Chime, Anthropic, Menlo & The Art of Selling LPs the Future 41:00 – Couchbase Acquired: PE Buyers Are Back… Or Are They? 44:00 – Why No One's Buying These 9-Figure SaaS Zombies 48:00 – If You Didn't Grow from AI By June 30, You're Already Dead 53:00 – Superhuman vs The AI-Natives: Who Wins the Replatforming War? 54:30 – Oracle's $30B AI Deal: Larry Did It Before You Even Started 56:00 – Scale Is Dead. Long Live Surge. The AI Data War Gets Bloody. 01:01:00 – Asana CEO Move & the Great Founder Exodus of 2025 01:06:00 – Will Cluely's Founder Be a Billionaire by 2029? Place Your Bets

3 Juli 1h 11min

20VC: Inside KKR's Monster $8BN European Fund | The $500M Turkey Gamble That Went Wrong | Do Andreessen & General Catalyst Scare KKR? | Will AI Kill the PE Model? | Can The PE Model Survive without IPOs and Where is the Liquidity with Philip Freise

Philipp Freise is Co-Head of European Private Equity at KKR, where he manages the largest private fund in Europe with $8BN in the latest fund. Philip has led KKR's investments in FGS Global, Superstruct, Axel Springer SE, BMG Rights Management, Fotolia, GetYourGuide, GfK SE, Leonine, Mediawan SAS, Scout24 Switzerland and Trainline. Previously, Philip worked at McKinsey & Company in and co-founded Berlin-based VC firm Venturepark, Europe's first pan-European incubator. Agenda: 00:00 – "We Lost $500M in Turkey. Here's Why We'll Never Do It Again." 01:40 – Inside Europe's Biggest PE Fund: $8B of Pure Firepower 03:55 – The $100M Dot-Com Failure That Changed My Career 06:45 – Why Picking the Wrong VC Will Destroy Your Company 10:20 – KKR's $500M COVID Gamble: Genius or Insane? 12:35 – Why We Ignored the Market & Deployed 40% of Our Fund 15:55 – KKR's Ruthless Portfolio Discipline: Love Doesn't Matter 17:10 – Do Power Laws Apply in PE? Freise Destroys the Myth 18:45 – The Truth About Capital Intensity in the Age of AI 20:10 – Can AI Kill the PE Model? Here's What Philipp Says 26:00 – The Secret to Great Investment Decisions at KKR 32:40 – Why There's a $3T Liquidity Time Bomb in Venture 34:25 – The Death of IPOs? How KKR Exits Without Going Public 40:05 – Will KKR Europe Hit $20B? Freise's Bold Prediction 43:45 – Helsing, Space, and Defense: The New Age of DeepTech Bets 45:30 – Tariffs, China, and the Future of the German Car Empire 47:00 – Freise vs. Bitcoin: Will USD Still Rule in 10 Years? 48:15 – 4 Global Shocks Happening Right Now That You Need to Know 51:30 – KKR Missed Spotify AND Alibaba?! The Painful Stories 53:00 – Do Andreessen & General Catalyst Scare KKR? Freise Responds 54:30 – The One Metric That Will Define KKR's Next Decade

30 Juni 1h 1min

20Sales: How to Layer Enterprise Sales on PLG | How to Sell AI Tools To Enterprises That Are Scared | Should Reps Own Their Own Pipeline | Mistakes All Founders Make When Moving From Founder-Led to Rep-Led Sales with Kim Graves

Kim Graves is GM, Americas at Notion, where she oversees all Sales and Customer Success efforts across the region. She brings extensive experience in building and scaling high-performing sales organizations, most notably at Slack where she helped grow revenue from $6M to over $1.5B. In addition to her operational role, Kim serves as a founding partner at 20SALES, a GTM-focused VC firm, where she advises early-stage companies on scaling revenue and optimizing sales processes. Agenda: 07:00 – The Secret to Winning a Discount Conversation 09:30 – Notion's Wild New Sales Method: Mindsets Over Stages 12:00 – Why Great Sellers Never Talk Product Too Soon 14:00 – How Slack Avoided the Biggest PLG Trap of All 17:00 – The Fatal Mistake Founders Make Layering Sales on PLG 20:00 – The "Renaissance Reps" That Build Billion-Dollar Motions 23:00 – How to Spot True Grit in a Sales Hire (Without Asking Directly) 26:00 – The Case Study Test That Filters Out Bullshitters 30:00 – The Real Reason Most Reps Fail Onboarding 33:00 – Should Reps Own Their Own Pipeline? Kim's Take Is Clear 36:00 – Why Cold Calling Works in 2025 (And Nobody Does It) 39:00 – The Sales Team Audit: The REKS Framework That Changes Everything 43:00 – How to Avoid Hiring the Wrong Rep Under Pressure 45:00 – When Sales Feels Second Class: PLG vs Enterprise Tension 47:00 – The One Thing Reps Still Do That AI Will Obliterate 50:00 – AI Sales Tools: Why Every Startup Is Failing to Get It Right 53:00 – Will We Have More or Fewer Reps in 5 Years? 56:00 – Enterprises Are Scared of AI – Here's How You Break In Anyway 59:00 – Kim's Secret for Getting Past Gatekeepers and Fake Champions 1:09:00 – Kim's Hardest Phase at Slack and How She Survived It

27 Juni 1h 17min

20VC: Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross Bought with Zuck's $100BN AI Budget | Navan Files to Go Public and Canva Pulls the Brakes: Why and What Happens | Why Larry Ellison is the Smartest Man in Tech | Substance or Sizzle: What is Real and What is BS in AI

Agenda: 04:21 - The Meta Acquisition Bombshell: Nat Friedman & Daniel Gross Join Facebook?! 06:00 - Facebook's $100 Billion Gamble: Can Zuck Buy the Future? 09:27 - The "Magic Room" Theory: Why Only Insiders Get Billion-Dollar Paydays 11:27 - Is Loyalty Dead in Silicon Valley? The Great Talent Exodus 16:00 - Harvey's $5 Billion Valuation: Genius or Bubble? 19:00 - The AI Gold Rush: Can Software Really Eat Human Labor? 22:00 - The B2B Unicorn Dilemma: Are There Enough $100B Companies? 25:00 - IPO Mania: Why Navan, Canva, and Circle Are Shaking Up the Markets 29:00 - Meme Stocks & Market Madness: The Circle Rollercoaster 32:00 - Canva's Billion-Dollar Question: Why Stay Private? 36:00 - Larry Ellison's Power Play: How to Buy Back Your Own Empire 39:00 - The Sales Tech Revolution: Why "Cheating" Tools Are the Next Big Thing 42:00 - Slack Lockdown: Is B2B Software About to Get Ugly? 45:00 - The Ultimate Quickfire: Will Trump Launch a Smartphone? Will the US Seize AI?

26 Juni 1h 13min

20VC: The Wild Story Raising $450M From Masa and Softbank | Why My Biggest Mistakes Came From Listening to VCs | Why 100 VCs Turned Us Down | Why European Founders Are Tougher Than US Founders with Johannes Reck, GetYourGuide

Johannes Reck is the Founder and CEO of GetYourGuide, the $2BN company that started with a holiday to China and nothing to do. For the first two years, GetYourGuide received only 5 bookings. Today the platform is worth $2BN. They have raised from some of the best, including an amazing story with Masa Son and Softbank. In Today's Episode We Discuss: 01:45 – "I Regret Our Series A — Too Much Dilution" 03:50 – US vs Europe: Why European Founders Are Tougher 06:10 – "Germany Spends €100B on Pensions, €7B on VC – It's Insane" 08:40 – Why Europe Fails to Build $10B Startups 10:25 – 90% of Our Team in Berlin Aren't German. Here's Why. 12:20 – Recruiting Netflix's Head of Growth Nearly Killed Me 16:20 – "We Had 5 Bookings in 2 Years. 3 Were My Mum." 18:00 – "I Asked My Parents to Remortgage Their House for a Pivot" 21:15 – The Vatican Tour That Changed Everything 23:30 – Why VCs Rejected GetYourGuide 100+ Times 28:30 – The $14M Series A That Nearly Killed the Company 31:00 – "I Hired All the Wrong People – Then Laid Off 30%" 36:30 – The $450M SoftBank Deal... Then COVID Hit 40:00 – "We Went to $0 in Revenue in 3 Weeks" 42:10 – The Sequoia Tree Mindset: Grow Through Fire 49:30 – What SoftBank's Masa Son Was Really Like in Person 52:00 – How He Thinks About Secondary, Wealth, and Not Losing His Soul 55:30 – "My Worst Hires Came from Listening to VCs Too Much" 58:30 – Angel Investing in Trade Republic and TravelPerk: My Lessons 01:01:00 – Do You Have to Work 7 Days a Week to Win?

23 Juni 1h 16min

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Cem Kansu is the Chief Product Officer at Duolingo, where he leads product strategy for over 90 million monthly active learners. Since joining Duolingo, Cem has played a pivotal role in driving record user engagement, revenue growth, and product innovation, including the launch of Duolingo Math and the wildly successful Duolingo Music. Under his leadership, the company has consistently ranked as the #1 education app globally. In Today's Episode We Discuss: 04:12 – Cem's Origin Story: From Google Ads to Saving Duolingo's Business 06:45 – "Mini CEO" Myth: Why PMs Need to Ditch the Ego 08:55 – The Truth About Design Speed and Pixel Perfection 11:30 – The INSANE Story Behind Duolingo's Viral Chess Launch 14:42 – Why Smaller Teams Are the Future of Product 17:20 – Duolingo's AI Playbook: How They're Building 10x Faster 20:05 – Will Engineers Even Exist in 5 Years? Cem Gets Real 26:10 – Do AI Tools Have ANY Defensibility? Cem Doesn't Hold Back 29:00 – Why Duolingo Took So Long to Monetize (And What They Learned) 33:05 – Cem on Killing Ads, Tasteful Monetization, and Investor Doubt 38:30 – The Secret to Duolingo's Paywall Strategy (And What Not to Do) 42:05 – Cem's Weirdest Retention Hack? A Single Emoji… 46:25 – The Crazy Science Behind Push Notifications at Duolingo 50:00 – In-App Purchases Done Right: GEMS, Freeze, and the Psychology of Value 53:15 – Why Cem Thinks Daily Retention Is the King Metric 55:10 – The ONE Product Feature That Changed Duolingo Forever 57:45 – Will Duolingo Become the Disney of Gen Z? 01:00:00 – Dating on Duolingo?! Cem Reacts to Harry's Craziest Product Ideas 01:03:45 – Cem's Biggest Product Mistakes — And What He'd Kill Tomorrow 01:12:00 – The One Thing Every PM Must Do to Survive the AI Wave 01:14:00 – Duolingo in 20 Years: Cem's Wildest Vision Yet

20 Juni 1h 19min

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19 Juni 1h 6min

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