20VC: Alexis Ohanian on Why Now Was The Right Time To Start Seven Seven Six, The 2 Very Distinct Types of Deals In Venture & The Unbundling of Social in 2021
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Release Date: 11/19/2020
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Carles Reina is VP of Sales at ElevenLabs, where he was the first investor and fourth employee. Carles has scaled the revenue org from Day 1 to over $330M in just 3 years. Carles is also an active investor with investments in ElevenLabs, Revolut, Happy Robot and more. AGENDA: 0:00 How I Turned $20K into $16M with Revolut Angel Investment 10:45 Why I Don’t Believe in Product-Market Fit 15:40 How to do Land and Expand: Turning $12K Deals into Millions 19:40 The 20X Rule: A "Ruthless" Comp Plan for Elite Reps 24:35 Public Shaming? Why Honest Pipeline Reviews Save Companies 28:50 Why...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
AGENDA: 03:43 Anthropic Predicts $149B in ARR in 2029 09:27 Will FDEs Become More or Less Powerful 26:17 Harvey Raises $200M at an $11BN Valuation 42:45 Is Customer Support a Terrible or Terrific Investment Category 56:14 Anthropic’s Superbowl Ad: Who Won and Who Lost 01:11:30 Do CEOs Have to Work Harder Today Than Ever
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Anish Acharya is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), where he leads consumer and fintech investing at Series A. He serves on the boards of standout portfolio companies including Deel, Mosaic, Clutch, Titan, and HappyRobot and has led early bets in companies like Runway and Carbonated. Before a16z, he founded and exited two startups—Snowball (acquired by Credit Karma) and SocialDeck (acquired by Google) and scaled Credit Karma’s U.S. Card business to over 100 million members. AGENDA: 00:03 - Why building an AI company today requires being in San Francisco 06:58 - The "SaaS...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Ariel Cohen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Navan (formerly TripActions), an AI-powered travel and expense platform. Last month, Ariel took the company public, since being a public company, they have faced a torrid time seeing stock price decline by 50%. The company is currently valued between $4BN-$5BN. AGENDA: 0:00 The Truth About Going Public After 11 Years 5:50 Why We Couldn't Wait: The Real Reason for the IPO 8:15 Disrupting the Giants: Amex, Concur, and the $1T Opportunity 11:50 "If We Don't Build This, We're Dead": Seeing ChatGPT Early 18:35 Why Navan Built Their Own Customer Service...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
AGENDA: 00:00 - SpaceX Completes Acquisition of xAI in $1.25 Trillion Merger 08:44 - The Rehabilitation of the IPO and the End of "State Private Forever" 15:53 - The 2026 SaaS Massacre: Public Market Collapse 31:20 - Next-Gen CRM War: Hubspot Down 50%+ vs Next Gen Heavily Funded 45:30 - Microsoft’s $360 Billion Market Cap Loss and the Shift in AI Narrative 52:45 - Nvidia’s Strategic Retreat: The Dispute Over the $100 Billion OpenAI Investment 01:03:30 - Waymo Raises $16 Billion at a $110 Billion Valuation 01:17:30 - The Launch of OpenClaw and Moltbook: 1.5 Million Agents Join a...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Oren Zeev is one of the most prominent solo capitalists in venture. He is one of the most no BS investors of our time. Oren manages over $1BN in AUM and is known for his "radical alignment" approach, often taking $0 in management fees. His track record includes massive successes like Navan, Audible, and Houzz. AGENDA: 03:11 – Why the Best Investments Always Look "Wrong" at the Start 05:58 – The AI Tsunami: How to Spot Beneficiaries vs. Victims 10:43 – The Death of Incumbents? Why Most AI Predictions Are Wrong 14:12 – Why Chasing Hyper-Growth is a "Disaster Waiting to Happen" 19:41 –...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Omer Shai serves as the CMO at Wix. Shai leads a team of over 400 people and is responsible for the company’s global online and offline marketing activity, which boasts an incredible growth of approximately 3 million new users every month. Under Shai, the marketing department has executed hundreds of worldwide campaigns for television and social including 5 Super Bowl commercials, creative videos, podcasts and more. AGENDA: 00:00 — The AI Agent Revolution: 93% Automation? 03:55 — Why I’m Buying TWO Super Bowl Ads This Year 08:58 — The $100M Marketing Secret: Brand vs. Performance...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
AGENDA: 03:36 Brex Acquisition by Capital One for $5.15BN 10:54 Does Brex’s Acquisition Help or Hurt Ramp? 16:28 TikTok Deal Completed: Who Won & Who Lost: Analysis 19:30 Anthropic Inference Costs Higher Than Expected 37:50 Open Evidence Raises at $12BN from Thrive and DST 53:56 Wealthront IPO Disaster: Is $1.5BN IPO Too Small? 01:07:27 Salesforce Wins $5BN Army Contract: The Last Laugh for SaaS
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Max Junestrand is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Legora, the legal AI company that has scaled to 750 of the world’s leading law firms as customers and over 300 employees in just 2 years. They have raised over $200M from some of the best in the business including Benchmark, General Catalyst, Redpoint and ICONIQ. AGENDA: 04:16 Why Does Everyone Think Harvey When They Hear Legal AI? 07:35 Why OpenAI is Toast? Switching to Anthropic! 11:47 24 Months: Which Foundation Models Will Win? 23:53 Lessons Scaling from Europe into the US 28:53 Do Americans Work As Hard As They Say? 32:20 Why Seat...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
AGENDA: 00:03:00 – Harry's Wild Start: Making £1.75M at 19 in 36 Hours 00:06:00 – How Harry Got Marc Benioff on 20VC with Cold Emailing Alone 00:07:30 – Raising $70M on WhatsApp – Relationship Building Secrets 00:12:00 – Decision Framework: What Would Pat Grady (Sequoia) Do? 00:15:00 – Chase Your First Million – It Unlocks Everything 00:16:30 – Advice for 19-Year-Olds Today: Niche Down, Interview Leaders, Publish 00:18:00 – University Is a Waste for Most | Leverage Youth & Risk 00:22:30 – How Getting Kicked Out of School Changed Everything 00:30:00 – Why Should...
info_outlineAlexis Ohanian is the Founder @ Seven Seven Six, his new fund which just recently announced their first investment leading the $4M seed round for Dispo. Prior to founding Seven Seven Six, Alexis was the Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ Initialized Capital, where he backed many a unicorn including Ro, Flexport, Patreon, GOAT just to name a few. Alexis is also the co-founder @ Reddit, commonly referred to as the front page of the internet, their latest valuation priced the company at $3Bn.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) When Alexis left his L Sats to go get waffles, what did he learn about himself? How did that lead to founding Reddit? How did Reddit lead to angel investing? How did that lead to Initialized?
2.) Why did Alexis leave Initialized? Why was now the right time? What worked with Initialized that he has taken with him to Seven Seven Six? What did not work with Initialized that he has learned from? How does he view VC NPS as a result of this and the learnings?
3.) How does Alexis analyse his own relationship to money today? How did his relationship with his mother and her illness impact how he thinks about wealth and happiness? How did he feel when at 22 he sold Reddit? How does he feel about the "keeping up with the Jones'" mentality?
4.) How did having Olympia change how Alexis operates and invests today? How does Alexis define backing projects he would be proud to talk to Olympia about? How does he feel about the type of deals many investors make today?
5.) How did Alexis first meet PG from YC? How did he feel when he heard he believed in him and Steve with Reddit? How did that change how Alexis feels about being the first person to really back someone?
Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode
Alexis’ Favourite Book: Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction
Alexis’ Most Recent Investment: Dispo
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