20VC: a16z's Scott Kupor on The Biggest Learnings From Scaling a16z from $300m to $7Bn AUM, The Biggest Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Pitching VCs & Why VC Is Simply A Customer Service Business
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Release Date: 06/10/2019
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Billy Hult is Chief Executive Officer of (Nasdaq: TW), as Billy puts it, they are the "electronic interface that connects Citadel and Goldman". They are also one of the most under the radar but incredible businesses of the last 20 years. Through no glitz acquisitions or specific moments, TradeWeb has compounded organic growth for the last 27 years to today, with a market cap of $22BN. In Today's Episode with Billy Hult: 1. From Betting Shop Worker to Public Company CEO: How would Billy's teachers and parents have described the young Billy? Why does Billy think it is so important to...
info_outline 20VC: a16z's Chris Dixon on Who Will Win the Next Generation of Venture, The Two Ways to Make Great Venture Investments and Find the Best Entrepreneurs & Why AI Will Strengthen the Position of the Incumbents Moving ForwardThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Chris Dixon is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, one of the leading venture firms of the last decade with investments in Oculus (acquired by Facebook), Coinbase, and many more. Chris also founded and leads a16z crypto, a division of the firm that he has grown from $300 million in 2018 to more than $7 billion of committed capital. Due to his many successes, Chris was named #1 on the Forbes Midas List in 2022. In Today’s Episode with Chris Dixon We Discuss: From Founder to Leading GP in Venture: How did Chris make his way into the world of venture and startups? When did he...
info_outline 20VC: Lessons from 32 Years of Fund Investing | Why Exits Will Be Larger & Funds Sizes Bigger | Top Reasons to Turn Down Potential Fund Investments | Fees, Carry, Deployment Pace; What Do LPs Inspect When Fund Investing with David Clark, CIO @ VencapThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
David Clark is the CIO of , one of the leading fund of funds in the venture landscape. David has been at Vencap for 32 years and has been an LP his entire career. In Today's Episode with David Clark We Discuss: 1. From Unemployed Student in Love to Leading LP: How did a girlfriend lead to David taking his first steps into the world of fund investing? What does David know now about fund investing that he wishes he had known when he started? 2. Is Being an LP Harder than Ever Before: Does David agree with , "venture has transitioned from a boutique high margin business to a low...
info_outline 20VC: Bryan Johnson on Why Humans Are No Longer Qualified to Manage Our Own Affairs, How Algorithms Will Run our Bodies and How to Process New Ideas and Challenge Conventional BeliefsThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Bryan Johnson is the founder of Blueprint, the man is at war with death and is mastering longevity. Bryan is on a mission aimed at enhancing human intelligence and being respected by people in the 25th century. Before starting Blueprint, Bryan also founded Braintree (acquired by PayPal for $800M) and OS Fund – a $100M venture capital fund investing in genomics, synthetic biology, and complex systems. In Today’s Episode with Bryan Johnson We Discuss: The Philosophy of Don’t Die What does Bryan think is the biggest existential threat to humankind? Why does Bryan believe humans are...
info_outline 20Product: Why Process is Killing Your Product Team and How to Remove it | Three Product Decisions Every Team Needs to Make | Why the Best Companies Build Movements and Lessons from Shopify and Atlassian on How to Do It Right with Jean-Michel LemieuxThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Jean-Michel Lemieux is one of the OGs of engineering and product having been the CTO at Shopify and the VP Engineering at Atlassian. Jean-Michel helped grow both Shopify and Atlassian from single-product to multi-product companies and led the building of their platforms. In Today’s Episode with Jean-Michel Lemieux We Discuss: From band class to Shopify CTO How did Jean-Michel make his way into the world of product? What were Jean-Michel’s biggest lessons from his time at Atlassian & Shopify? How are Shopify & Atlassian the same? How are they different? Why does...
info_outline 20VC: 19 Company Portfolio: 1 Decacorn, 7 Unicorns, 4 Acquisitions; One of the Best Seed Investors of All Time on How to Pick Generational Defining Founders, Why Nothing but the Founder Matters & Why the Best Investors are Never Happy w/ Gili RaananThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Gili Raanan is the Founder of and one of the most successful seed investors ever. In his 19 company portfolio, Gili has invested in a decacorn (Wiz), seven unicorns and had three others acquired. Prior to Cyberstarts, Gili spent over 15 years as a General Partner @ investing in some of the world's best cyber security companies. In Today's Episode with Gili Raanan We Discuss: 1. From Founder to World's Best Seed Investor: How did Gili make the move into the world of venture with Sequoia? How did Mike Moritz and Doug Leone recruit him? What was that process like? What are 1-2 of...
info_outline 20VC: Bending Spoons: The Most Untold Success Story in Startups: Lessons Scaling to 500M Downloads, $360M in Reported 2023 Sales and a $2.55BN Valuation... Bootstrapped with Luca Ferrari, Co-Founder and CEO @ Bending SpoonsThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Luca Ferrari is Co-Founder and CEO of Bending Spoons, one of the most incredible but untold success stories in startups. Luca has scaled Bending Spoons to 100M monthly active users, $380M in sales in 2023 and aiming to reach $500M in EBITDA by the end of 2026. The company’s products include Evernote, Meetup, Remini, and Splice and their products have now been downloaded more than 500M times. In Today’s Episode with Luca Ferrari We Discuss: From McKinsey Associate to $2BN Founder What was Luca like as a child? How would his parents have described him? Why did Luca share his...
info_outline 20Growth: Top Five Lessons from Leading Analytics at Facebook and Data Science at Sequoia Capital, The Two Skills Required to do Analytics Well, The Three Types of Execs within Companies and When and How to Hire for Growth with Chandra NarayananThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Chandra Narayanan is one of the growth and analytics OGs having spent 7 years at Facebook leading analytics for the Facebook App and for Instagram. After Facebook, Chandra became Chief Data Scientist @ Sequoia Capital, helping Sequoia, find, select and help the best entrepreneurs in the world. Today, Chandra is the Founder & CEO @ Sundial, building products to help builders make meaningful use of data to fulfill *their* mission. In Today's Episode with Chandra Narayanan 1. From Working on the Weather to Leading Analytics at Facebook: How did Chandra make his way from analyzing...
info_outline 20VC: The Future of TikTok; Is it a Danger to US National Security| Why the "Woke Mind Virus" is a "Post-Modern Religion" and Is it Too Late to Reverse | Why the Education System is Broken | Investing Lessons from Wish, Palantir and Lady Gaga | Joe LonsdaThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Joe Lonsdale is the Founder and Managing Partner at , an early-stage venture capital firm managing over $6 billion in capital. In 2003, he founded . Since then, he has founded over a dozen companies, including Addepar, a wealth management platform helping investors manage over $5 trillion, and OpenGov, recently sold for $1.8BN. In Today’s Episode with Joe Lonsdale We Discuss: The Making of a Multi-Unicorn Founder: What was Joe like as a child? How would his parents and teachers have described him? What does Joe know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career? How...
info_outline 20Sales: Outbound Sales is Dead Today, Why Demand Generation Will Move Back Under Marketing, "Wisdom" that Everyone Needs to Unlearn About Sales & Why You Should Never Hire Someone You Do Not Know in Your First Five Hires with Brendon CassidyThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Brendon Cassidy is one of the OG of enterprise sales of the last decade, having advised the likes of Gong.io, Pipedrive, Showpad. Previously Brendon was first Head of Sales at LinkedIn and VP of Sales at Talkdesk. In Today's Episode with Brendon Cassidy We Discuss: 1. From Recruiter to Sales OG and Linkedin's First Head of Sales: How did recruiting prepare Brendon for a career in sales? What impact did the dot-com bubble burst have on his early career? What does Brendon know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career in sales? 2. The Sales Playbook and Hiring The...
info_outlineScott Kupor is Managing Partner @ Andreessen Horowitz, one of the world's most renowned venture funds with a portfolio including the likes of Facebook, Airbnb, Github, Lyft, Coinbase, Slack and many more. As for Scott, he has been with the firm since its inception in 2009 and has overseen its rapid growth, from three employees to 150+ and from $300 million in assets under management to more than $7 billion today. Before a16z, Scott was a VP @ HP where he managed a $1.5 billion (1,300 person) global support organization for HP Software product portfolio. Scott joined HP as a result of his prior company Opsware, being acquired, where he served as a Senior VP across numerous roles across an incredible 8-year journey.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Scott made his way from the world of law to startups to being Managing Partner at one of the world's most renowned venture firms in the form of a16z?
2.) How did seeing the boom and bust of the dot com bubble and 2008 impact Scott's operating mindset today? Why does he argue that those times are so drastically different to today? How do public markets fundamentally diffferent? How do teams approach to capital efficiency and scaling differ significantly?
3.) What does Scott believe entrepreneurs get most wrong when pitching VCs? Why does Scott argue that product is not the core when pitching VCs? Does Scott agree with Fred @ Okta in weighing it: 70% market, 20% team, 10% product? What is Scott's weighting? Why does Scott believe that the compression of fundraising timelines is a problem? What pitch sticks out to Scott above all others? What made it so memorable?
4.) How does Scott advise founders on determining the right amount to raise for? Does Scott believe that founders should ask for a specific number or a range? Why does Scott believe raising for "runway" is the wrong mindset? Does Scott believe that most bridges are bridges to nowhere? If so, what is the next step? How does one relay that information to the founders?
5.) What have been some of Scott's biggest learnings from building the firm with Marc and Ben? What does Scott believe have been the biggest inflexion points in the public status of a16z? What have been the biggest challenges for Scott in the scaling of the firm? How does he foresee that changing in the future?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Scott’s Fave Book: Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Scott on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.