20VC: Semil Shah on The Biggest Mistakes VCs and LPs Made Over the Last 24 Months, Why LP Churn is Coming, Core Lessons on Scaling from $1M Haystack Fund I to Today and How To Find, Win and Manage LPs as an Emerging Manager
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Release Date: 11/21/2022
20Product: When to Hire a CPO, The Three Different Types of CPO, How To Know What You Need, How To Structure the Hiring Process, What Are the Must-Ask Questions, What Tests and Case Studies Should Be Used, How Should Their Compensation Package Be Structur
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
is the CPO @ , the company that makes scheduling meetings simple and painless. Before Calendly, Annie led Glassdoor’s product vision and user experience, managing a 70-person product and design org. is an investor, advisor, and all-around product OG. Most recently Shreyas spent over 5 years at Stripe where he was Stripe’s first PM Manager and helped grow the PM function (from ~5 to more than 50 people). Before Stripe, Shreyas was a Director of Product Management @ Twitter. is one of the product OGs of the last decade. As the founder of Bump David pioneered...
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20VC: From $57M in ARR to $297M in Just 12 Months; Why Speed of Execution is the Most Important Factor to Success, Hiring 2,000 People in 3 Years Remotely & Secondaries; Why, When and How Much To Take Out with Alex Bouaziz, Co-Founder & CEO @ Deel
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Alex Bouaziz is the Co-Founder and CEO @ , the all-in-one platform made to simplify all things HR, built for global teams near and far. In the last year alone, Alex has scaled Deel from $57M in ARR to $295M, EBITDA positive since Sept 2022, 85%+ gross margins, and over $5BN paid out to 250,000 people. Alex has raised over $679M with Deel, pricing the company at the last round at $12.1BN. Investors in the company include , Spark Capital, Coatue, and many more. In Today's Episode with Alex Bouaziz We Discuss: 1.) From Student in London to Decacorn Founder: How Alex made his way into the...
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20VC: Homebrew's Hunter Walk and Satya Patel on Why $100M is Not Enough To Execute a Seed Strategy Today | Why They Decided not to Raise New External Funds | Where Are We in the Cycle & What is Truly F***** | Why Founders Should Take Secondaries Earlier
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
and are Co-Founders and Partners @ Homebrew, one of the leading seed funds of the last decade. Following 10 years of stellar returns with investments in the likes of Chime, Plaid, Gusto and many others, they decided to not accept any further LP capital and to only invest their own money moving forward through . In Today's Discussion on Homebrew We Breakdown: 1. ) The Foundings of a Great Partnership: What was the moment when Hunter and Satya decided they were going to go out and raise their first fund with Homebrew I? What are the core principles that all founding partners need to...
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20VC: Canva Co-Founder, Cliff Obrecht on The Journey From 100 VC Rejections to a $40BN Company, Why Good Enough is Not Good Enough, The Secret to Hiring Non-Obvious Talent and Relationships to Money and Why They Are Giving Away Billions
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Cliff Obrecht is the Co-Founder & COO @ , the free-to-use online graphic design tool that makes it easy for anyone to design anything from presentations to videos and social media. Cliff and Mel have scaled Canva to over 60 million monthly users, 2,000 employees, and 500,000 teams from companies like Intel and using Canva. During this incredible growth journey, they have raised over $580M with their last round valuing the company at over $40BN. In Today's Episode with Cliff Obrecht 1.) From Teacher to Billionaire Tech Founder: How did Keith make his way into the world of tech...
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20Sales: Why You Should Not Do PLG and Enterprise Sales at the Same Time | How To Move Into Enterprise Sales Gradually | How To Make a Comp Plan For Sales Teams | Why Discounting is Good and Can Be Used with Stevie Case, CRO @ Vanta
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Stevie Case is the CRO @ where she oversees Vanta’s go-to-market team to support the company’s rapid growth. Prior to joining Vanta, Stevie was Vice President of Mid-Market Sales at , joining as one of their first account executives, Stevie helped to grow the sales team from a dozen to over 1,000 team members and played a pivotal role in establishing Twilio’s enterprise business with key Fortune 500 customers, generating more than $400 million in annual recurring revenue. If that was not enough, Stevie is also a Founding Operator @ Coalition Network and a prominent angel investor. In...
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20VC: USV's Albert Wenger on What Elon Musk Should Do with Twitter | The State of Crypto Today; The Impact of SBF and Why Now is the Best Time To Invest in Crypto | Are We Too Late to Save The Climate and Why Civil Disobedience is Required | Will TikTok b
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Albert Wenger is a managing partner at , one of the most successful venture firms of the last decade with a portfolio including , Twitter, Twilio, Etsy, and many more. Before joining USV, Albert was the president of del.icio.us through the company’s sale to Yahoo and an angel investor (Etsy, Tumblr). He previously founded or co-founded several companies, including a management consulting firm and an early-hosted data analytics company. In Today's Episode with Albert Wenger We Discuss: 1.) From Failed Startup Founder to Leading VC: How Albert transitioned from being a failed...
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20VC: Turning Canned Water into a $700M Media and Health Company, What Makes Truly Great Brands, How Founders Can Build Their Brand From Day 1 Today & How to Create Viral Content with Little to No Budget with Mike Cessario, Founder and CEO @ Liquid Death
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Mike Cessario is the Founder and CEO @ , the man hacking the healthy beverage market with the first hilarious water brand. It is working, Liquid Death's latest valuation was over a staggering $700M and Mike has raised over $200M since founding the company from the likes of Science Inc. Away's Jen Rubio, Dollar Shave Club's Michael Dubin, Swedish House Mafia and Tony Hawk to name a few. Prior to founding Liquid Death, Mike was in the advertising industry at a number of dirrect firms including VaynerMedia. In Today's Episode with Mike Cessario We Discuss: 1.) From Canned Water to $700M...
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20Growth: When To Make Your First Growth Hire? How To Structure the Hiring Process for Growth? Five Core Things the Best Growth Hires Do in the First Week? What to Expect New Growth Hires to Achieve in the First 30 and 90 Days with Hila Qu, Growth Advisor
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Hila Qu is one of the leading growth execs of the last decade. Hila helped scale from 1 million to 5 million users as their VP of growth. Hila then joined , where she launched their PLG motion (on top of an established sales motion), and built their first-ever growth team. Today Hila is an advisor to amazing companies like Replit and funds like Mucker Capital, Openview and . In Today's Episode with Hila Qu We Discuss: 1.) From Biology and Explosions to Growth: How Hila made her way into the world of growth with growthhackers.com? What are 1-2 of the biggest takeaways...
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20VC: a16z's Jeff Jordan on The Ultimate Guide to Investing in Marketplaces, Two Core Features to Look for in All Marketplace Investments, Why Fragmented Supply is so Important & Lessons from Airbnb, Pinterest and Instacart on What Makes the Best Cohorts
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Jeff Jordan is a General Partner @ where he serves on the boards of Airbnb, Incredible Health, , Lookout, and Pinterest, just to name a few. Before a16z, Jeff was CEO OpenTable, where he led the company during a period of hyper-growth and oversaw its IPO. Prior to OpenTable, Jeff was Senior VP and General Manager of eBay North America where he oversaw eBay's early growth into one of the Internet's leading commerce brands. In this role, he drove the successful acquisitions of PayPal and Half.com and went on to become President of PayPal, where he was responsible for establishing the company...
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20VC: WTF is Going On in VC? Are VCs Still Investing? How Has What VCs Want in Investments Changed? Are LPs Investing in New Funds? Why VCs That Invest in Public Markets Are Losers? Dec 2023; Will It Be Better Or Worse with Jason Lemkin
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The question is: "are VCs still investing?". Today we are joined by Jason Lemkin; one of the OGs of SaaS of the last decade. , he has inspired more SaaS founders than one can imagine building Jason also invests out of the $100M SaaStr Fund and in the past Jason has led rounds into TalkDesk, Pipedrive, Algolia, Gorgias, Salesloft, and many more incredible companies. Prior to founding SaaStr, Jason was the Co-Founder of Echosign, an early e-signature business, funded by Emergence Capital and that was acquired by Adobe for $100M. In Today's Episode on "Are VCs' Still Investing" We...
info_outlineSemil Shah is the Founder of Haystack, one of the leading pre-seed and seed firms of the last decade. Among Semil's portfolio include the likes of DoorDash ($DASH), Instacart, Hashicorp ($HCP), Opendoor ($OPEN), Figma (acquired by Adobe), Carta and many more exceptional companies. Semil's first fund is marked between a 30 and 40x fund, astonishing.
In Today's Episode with Semil Shah We Discuss:
1.) The Makings of Semil Shah:
- What is Semil running away from? What is he running towards?
- What does Semil know now that he wishes he had known when entering venture?
- What is Semil's biggest advice to managers raising their first funds now?
2.) Fund Sizing: Growing vs Staying Disciplined:
- Question from Hunter Walk: How does Semil determine the right size fund to raise with each fund
- Question from Satya Patel: Why have you resisted increasing AUM?
- In the last episode Semil mentioned a three-year deployment cycle for the fund, did he stick to it? What are the benefits and drawbacks?
- What investing mistakes did Semil make over the last 3 years that he wishes he had not made?
3.) The Secret to Fundraising for a Fund:
- What is Semil's biggest advice to emerging managers on finding new LPs? What works?
- What materials do managers need to have in place for a new fundraise? Deck? Dataroom?
- What are the most common mistakes VCs make when pitching LPs their funds?
- How does Semil follow-up with potential LPs post-call? What works? What does not?
- How does Semil suggest creating a sense of urgency for LPs to commit to a fund?
- How does Semil feel about giving preferential terms to convince LPs to commit to the first close?
4.) The Current Landscape:
For VCs:
- How will the current landscape impact emerging managers' ability to raise?
- What advice would Semil give to them? Raise smaller?
- Kyle Harrison said on the show recently, “differentiation will kill 80% of venture firms, especially the so-so ones”. Does Semil agree? Who is set to struggle? Who is set to thrive in this environment?
For LPs:
- What does Semil think are the biggest mistakes LPs made over the last 2-3 years?
- How will they respond in this market cycle?
- If Semil were handed an endowment fund, how would he allocate today?
- Does Semil agree, we will see a denigration of venture returns to those of PE like multiples? Why?
For Founders:
- How does Semil advise founders on raising today when everyone says they are investing but very few really are?
- How does Semil advise founders on how to think about valuation inflection points with respect to raising capital?
Items Mentioned in Today's Episode:
Semil's Favourite Article: Master of Play
Semil's Most Recent Investment: Impart Security