20VC: a16z's Martin Casado on How the Venture Model is Broken, Why VCs Should Be Running Wall St, Who Wins and Who Loses in the Next Generation of Venture & Investing Lessons from Marc Andreesen, Ben Horowitz and Chris Dixon
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Release Date: 12/05/2022
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Orlando Bravo is a Founder and Managing Partner of . He led Thoma Bravo’s early entry into software buyouts and built the firm into one of the top private equity firms in the world. Today, Orlando directs the firm’s strategy and investment decisions. Orlando has overseen over 420 software acquisitions conducted by the firm, representing more than $235 billion in transaction value. Forbes named him "Wall Street’s best dealmaker" in 2019, and he was dubbed "Private equity’s king of SaaS" by the Financial Times in 2021. In Today's Episode with Orlando Bravo We Discuss: 1.) From...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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...
info_outlineMartin Casado is a General Partner @ a16z where he focuses on enterprise investing. At a16z, Martin has led investments and serves on the board of dbt Labs, Fivetran, Material Security, Ambient AI and many more incredible companies. Before venture, Martin was previously the Co-Founder and CTO at Nicira, acquired by VMware for $1.26 billion in 2012. While at VMware, Martin served as Senior VP and General Manager of the Networking and Security Business Unit, which he scaled to a $600 million revenue run-rate business.
In Today's Episode with Martin Casado We Discuss:
1. From $1.26BN Founder to Leading Enterprise Investing for a16z:
- How did Martin make his way into the world of VC and come to lead enterprise investing for a16z?
- What does Martin know now that he wishes he had known when he started investing?
- What have been some of his biggest investing lessons from Marc and Ben?
2. The VC Model is Broken and Why:
- Why does Martin believe that the current model for venture is broken?
- Why does Martin believe that VCs are not oracles and they were not gifted with picking ability?
- How will asset allocation more broadly fundamentally change over the next decade? Why will Silicon Valley take over and run Wall St?
- Why does Wall St not care about innovation and true technological development?
- Who will be the winners and who will be the losers in the next 10 years of venture?
3. Surviving a Crash - What Founders Need To Know:
- Layoffs: What is Martin's advice to founders on doing layoffs today? How much is the right amount to cut? Should it be done in one go? How should this be communicated to investors and the board?
- Scenario Planning: What three scenario plans should all founders be creating right now? How should they know which one is the right one to execute against?
- Comparisons: How should founders use and look to public company performance and market cap to determine which plan they should choose?
- Hiring Freeze: Why does Martin believe the biggest companies in the world make massive mistakes by freezing hiring? What should they do instead?
4. The Changing Guard at a16z:
- What have been the single best and worst changes a16z have made over the last 24 months?
- What are the first things to break when a firm scales as fast as a16z has done?
- Does Martin agree a16z returns will reduce with the scaling of their funds larger than ever?
- How does Martin look to train and educate his junior team? How does he advise them on surviving a downturn? What should they do? What should they not do?
5.) The Makings of a Great Board:
- What are the three types of board members? What is the best? What is the worst?
- What does Martin believe makes the truly great boards?
- What is the biggest advice Martin gives to young board members today?
- How has Martin changed as a board member over time? What does he need to improve?
Items Mentioned in Today's Episode:
Martin's Fave Book: The Weirdest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous