20VC: Why Being First Does Not Matter, Why Defensibility on Day 1 Does Not Exist, Three Core Elements To Move into Enterprise Effectively and What Makes Truly Great Product Marketing Today with Des Traynor, Co-Founder @ Intercom

20VC: Why Being First Does Not Matter, Why Defensibility on Day 1 Does Not Exist, Three Core Elements To Move into Enterprise Effectively and What Makes Truly Great Product Marketing Today with Des Traynor, Co-Founder @ Intercom

Des Traynor is a Co-founder and the Chief Strategy Officer of Intercom, the modern customer communications platform that unifies every aspect of the customer journey. To date, Intercom has raised over $238M from some of the best including Index, ICONIQ, Kleiner, GV, and Bessemer. As for Des, before co-founding Intercom, he was a UX consultant, a university lecturer in computer science, and also a Ph.D. researcher. Des is also a prolific angel investor with a portfolio including the likes of Stripe, Algolia, Notion, Miro, and many more.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

1.) Origins of Intercom:

  • How did Des make his way into the world of startups and come to co-found Intercom?
  • When did they realize they really had something with Intercom and had to focus on it?
  • What does Des know now that he wishes he had known at the start of Intercom?

2. Two of the Biggest Myths in Startups: Being First and Defensibility

  • Why does Des believe that being the first does not matter? Why is it not an advantage?
  • Why does Des believe that no company has defensibility on day 1? How does Des believe defensibility is built?
  • What does Des mean when he says, when investing in companies he looks for a "long road to the starting line"?

3.) Product 101: A Masterclass on Product:

  • How does Des answer the question of when to release a second product?
  • How should the second product be resourced? MVP and lean or full budget and committed?
  • What are the biggest mistakes people make when releasing a second product? What mistakes have Des and Intercom made when releasing new products?
  • How does Des advise founders on when to stop working on a product? How do you know when it is not working?
  • How does Des determine between a feature and a product both when building and when investing?

4.) Moving to Enterprise:

  • What does Des believe are the three core things all companies need to scale into the enterprise effectively? Which should they do first? Which is most challenging?
  • How does Des advise founders on when is the right time to move into the enterprise?
  • How does the product need to change to meet enterprise needs and requirements?

5.) The Makings of Great Product Marketing:

  • What does Des believe makes truly great product marketing? Who does it well today?
  • How does your product marketing need to change as you scale from SMB to enterprise?
  • If product marketing to both an end user and a separate buyer, which persona should one prioritise their messaging towards?
  • How does Des advise founders on product marketing when they have a horizontal product with a very broad customer base?

6.) Angel Investing 101: From Stripe to Miro to Notion:

  • Why does Des believe it is beneficial for operators to also be investing?
  • What are the biggest lessons Des has learned from angel investing?
  • How does Des approach both market sizing and outcome scenario planning today?
  • How price sensitive is Des today? How has that changed over time?

Item's Mentioned in Today's Episode with Des Traynor:

Des' Favourite Book: How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen

Avsnitt(1403)

20Growth: The $6.6B Growth Engine Behind ElevenLabs | Why ElevenLabs Do Not Have PMs | The 7 Part Launch Playbook to Crush All Launches with Luke Harries, Head of Growth @ ElevenLabs

20Growth: The $6.6B Growth Engine Behind ElevenLabs | Why ElevenLabs Do Not Have PMs | The 7 Part Launch Playbook to Crush All Launches with Luke Harries, Head of Growth @ ElevenLabs

Luke Harries is Head of Growth at ElevenLabs, where he leads marketing, product, engineering, and developer experience. ElevenLabs has raised $281M with the latest round pricing the company at a $6.6B valuation. Previously, Luke held roles at PostHog and Microsoft, and is also an angel investor supporting startups like Lovable and Runna. AGENDA:  The $6.6B Growth Engine Behind ElevenLabs Why Luke Said "No" to Investing in ElevenLabs (and Why He Was Wrong) How ElevenLabs Makes a Horizontal Product Strategy Work How to Build Sharded Growth Teams That Actually Scale The 7-Part Launch Playbook That Gets 700K+ Views Per Product The Truth About CAC, Payback, and Performance Marketing in AI SEO Isn't Dead: The Mini-Tool Strategy You Should Steal Kill Your Inbound SDRs—The Case for Voice AI in Sales Why You Don't Need PMs and the Rise of Growth-Led Product Teams

11 Jan 1h 13min

20Sales: The Best Sales People Are F***** in the Head | The Unspoken Truths All Sales Leaders Need to Know in 2026 | Why Europe is a Nightmare for Recruiting | How to Improve Sales Team Performance in 24 Hours with Chad Peets

20Sales: The Best Sales People Are F***** in the Head | The Unspoken Truths All Sales Leaders Need to Know in 2026 | Why Europe is a Nightmare for Recruiting | How to Improve Sales Team Performance in 24 Hours with Chad Peets

Chad Peets is one of the great sales leaders of our time. Currently, Chad is leading all things sales at X. Previously he was the sales saviour at Snowflake and was an advisor to the CEO there. He was also a MD at Sutter Hill where he sat on the board of companies like Sigma Computing and Augment Code.  AGENDA: 04:53 How to Recruit the Best Sales Talent Today  06:27 Why Europe is a Nightmare for Recruitment in Sales 11:29 How to Evaluate Sales Talent: Green and Red Flags 21:58 Why Remote Work is BS and You Have to be in Office 23:43 How to Improve Sales Team Performance in Just 24 Hours 27:45 When to Fire vs When to Give More Time 32:10 How to Set Sales Quotas Effectively 34:39 Adjusting Compensation Plans for Better Performance 37:50 Why Work Life Balance is Total BS 41:08 Biggest Lessons on Leading Sales Teams 50:37 What is The Future of Enterprise Sales with AI 58:40 Quick Fire Questions and Final Thoughts

9 Jan 1h 9min

20VC: Groq's $20BN NVIDIA Acquisition | Manus Acquired by Meta for $2BN | Why Sam Altman Does Not Care About Dilution | Navan Trading at 4x ARR & Why Going Public Does Not Make Sense Anymore | The Rise of Invisible Unemployment and Labour Markets in 2026

20VC: Groq's $20BN NVIDIA Acquisition | Manus Acquired by Meta for $2BN | Why Sam Altman Does Not Care About Dilution | Navan Trading at 4x ARR & Why Going Public Does Not Make Sense Anymore | The Rise of Invisible Unemployment and Labour Markets in 2026

AGENDA: 04:30 Groq Acquired by NVIDIA for $20BN: The Breakdown 17:13 Meta's $2BN Acquisition of Manus: Did They Sell Too Early 36:04 OpenAI's Stock-Based Compensation Strategy 47:42 Will AI Replace Venture Capitalists 56:13 Navan Trading at 4x ARR: Who is Good Enough to Go Public? 01:09:46 The Rise of Invisible Unemployment 01:14:21 The Future of Work and Education in an AI-Driven World

8 Jan 1h 23min

20VC: $0-$260M in Revenue in Three Years: How We Did It | You Need to Work Weekends to Win — Most Founders Aren't Ambitious Enough | The Revolut Playbook: Speed, Urgency, Extreme Ownership, and Zero Excuses with Alan Chang @ Fuse Energy

20VC: $0-$260M in Revenue in Three Years: How We Did It | You Need to Work Weekends to Win — Most Founders Aren't Ambitious Enough | The Revolut Playbook: Speed, Urgency, Extreme Ownership, and Zero Excuses with Alan Chang @ Fuse Energy

I have interviewed 1,000 entrepreneurs over 10 years. Nik Storonsky and our guest today are the two best that I have interviewed.  Joining the show today; Alan Chang, Co-Founder and CEO of Fuse Energy. Alan has scaled Fuse Energy from $2M in revenue in the first year, to $20M the second year to now $400M in the third year. Like Netflix beat incumbents to own media, Revolut beat incumbents to own banking, Fuse will beat incumbents to own energy. Prior to founding Fuse, Alan was one of the first three hires at Revolut where he played a crucial role alongside Nik (Founder) in scaling the company to over $75BN valuation.  AGENDA: 00:04:00 — The interview process that led to the $150M pay packet 00:05:05 — The moment I knew Revolut was going to be a $TRN company 00:06:10 — How Revolut drove speed and urgency in their teams 00:07:35 — Biggest lesson from Nik Storonsky @ Revolut 00:09:40 — If you want to build a generational company, you cannot have work-life balance 00:11:40 — What I disagreed with Nik @ Revolut on most 00:13:35 — Is Nik right that Revolut should have got a banking licence earlier? 00:15:05 — The green movement and the idea of "using less" is BS 00:22:55 — Why China is the shining light for regulation to follow 00:33:00 — What Nik at Revolut taught me about ownership and excuses 00:34:50 — The signs of truly top performing people in a team 00:36:55 — We do not have enough ambitious founders — we need to do more, not focus 00:39:55 — You need to work weekends to win 00:43:50 — Every single year we 10x revenue — now at ~$400M 00:44:35 — Why Eastern European engineers are the best Items Mentioned in Today's Show: Try NEXOS.AI for yourself with a 14-day free trial: https://nexos.ai/20vc

5 Jan 56min

20VC: Enterprises Will Not Adopt AI without Forward-Deployed Engineers | Who Wins the Data Labelling Race: How Does it Shake Out? | How Synthetic Data Threatens the Future of Human-Generated Data with Matt Fitzpatrick, CEO of Invisible Technologies

20VC: Enterprises Will Not Adopt AI without Forward-Deployed Engineers | Who Wins the Data Labelling Race: How Does it Shake Out? | How Synthetic Data Threatens the Future of Human-Generated Data with Matt Fitzpatrick, CEO of Invisible Technologies

Matt Fitzpatrick is the CEO of Invisible Technologies, leading the company's mission to make AI work. Since joining as CEO in January 2025, he has raised $100M and accelerated AI adoption across industries from sports to consumer and government. Previously, Matt was a Senior Partner at McKinsey, where he led QuantumBlack Labs, the firm's AI R&D and software development arm. AGENDA: 04:40 Interview with Matt Fitzpatrick: Career Journey and Leadership 09:35 The Single Biggest Barriers to Enterprises Adopting AI 15:26 It is BS That Enterprises Can Adopt AI Without Forward-Deployed Engineers 28:05 Are AI Talent Marketplaces Dead? What is the best model? 46:33 How Does the Data Labelling Market Shake Out: Who Wins/ Who Loses 48:27 Are Revenue Numbers for Data Labelling Real Revenue? Or GMV? 51:20 Best Capital Allocation Decision? What did Matt Learn from it? 53:19 How Important is Brand for AI Companies Selling Into Enterprise? 01:05:59 Remote Work vs. In-Person Collaboration 01:17:06 What Does No-One Know About the Future of AI That Everyone Should Know

31 Dec 20251h 23min

20VC's Big Fat Quiz of the Year: Founder, Fund and Breakout Company of 2025 | Predictions for 2026: The Company to Buy, The Biggest Short | Why Salesforce Could Win 2026 and The Tailwinds NVIDIA Will Face

20VC's Big Fat Quiz of the Year: Founder, Fund and Breakout Company of 2025 | Predictions for 2026: The Company to Buy, The Biggest Short | Why Salesforce Could Win 2026 and The Tailwinds NVIDIA Will Face

AGENDA: 03:48 Founder of the Year 2025 06:58 Product of the Year 10:05 Fund of the Year 20:52 Breakout Companies of 2025: Who Made the Biggest Impact? 26:57 Biggest Surprises of 2025 32:57 Predictions for 2026: Top Performing Tech Stocks of the Year 35:25 B2B Stocks to Watch 38:31 Why Salesforce Could Be the Buy of 2026 47:11 Google, Meta, Apple, NVIDIA, Microsoft: Buy One, Short One 55:38 IPO Speculations: Who Will Go Public in 2026 01:00:57 The Impact of AI on Employment

22 Dec 20251h 9min

20Product: On Running's CPO on How to Create Emotion Through Product | Why 99% of Products Fail and How to Create Cults Around Products | The Biggest Product Mistakes On Have Made & Lessons Learned with Gérald Marolf

20Product: On Running's CPO on How to Create Emotion Through Product | Why 99% of Products Fail and How to Create Cults Around Products | The Biggest Product Mistakes On Have Made & Lessons Learned with Gérald Marolf

Gérald Marolf is the Chief Product Officer at On Running. Gérald oversees the full range of On's shoes, apparel and accessories to make sure each delivers performance, comfort and style. Before On, Gérald spent over a decade building consumer brands with collaborators such as Microsoft and Ferrari. AGENDA: 00:00 – Why Most "Great Products" Fail to Create Emotion 03:00 – How Perfume Taught Me Everything About Desire & Product 06:10 – The Brutal Reality of Building Physical vs Digital Products 16:00 – Why "Simple Design" Is Overrated and Dangerous 23:00 – Why Vuori is the Brand to Short in Consumer  28:30 – The Biggest Product Mistake: Listening to Customers Too Much 32:10 – On Only Do Tennis Because of Roger Federer 38:30 – Were We Too Late to Marathon Running? A Painful Admission 43:40 – The Most Controversial Product On Has Ever Launched 49:00 – Are Counterfeits Good or Bad in Fashion?

19 Dec 202556min

20VC: Will SpaceX IPO at $1.5TRN | Will Cursor Kill Figma | Lightspeed Raises $9BN | OpenAI: $1BN from Disney, New CRO & #1 App in App Store | Oracle and Broadcom Hit: Now the Time to Buy?

20VC: Will SpaceX IPO at $1.5TRN | Will Cursor Kill Figma | Lightspeed Raises $9BN | OpenAI: $1BN from Disney, New CRO & #1 App in App Store | Oracle and Broadcom Hit: Now the Time to Buy?

AGENDA: 03:32 Lightspeed's $9 Billion Fundraise 05:20 The Impact of Mega Funds on Seed VCs 10:09 The Supercycle of Growth and Late-Stage Investments 13:06 Disney Invests $1BN into OpenAI and What It Means 23:19 Oracle Hit Hard: Is Now the Time to Buy 28:34 Broadcom's Market Cap Drop and Anthropic's AI Chip Orders 35:04 Cursor Competes with Figma: The Convergence of Design and Coding Tools 46:20 The Biggest Danger for Incumbents: Being Maimed by AI 55:28 Boom Supersonic Raising $300M to… Power Data Centres… WTF 01:00:24 Will SpaceX IPO at $1.5TRN and The Elon Option Value

18 Dec 20251h 22min

Populärt inom Business & ekonomi

framgangspodden
badfluence
varvet
rss-borsens-finest
svd-tech-brief
avanzapodden
rss-jossan-nina
dynastin
uppgang-och-fall
fill-or-kill
bathina-en-podcast
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet
rss-inga-dumma-fragor-om-pengar
rss-dagen-med-di
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
rss-svart-marknad
rss-veckans-trade
borslunch-2
rss-placerapodden
rss-borslunch