20VC: Why VC Returns Will Get Worse, Why LP Incentive Structures are so Broken, What is the Answer to Liquidity with No M&A or IPOs, When to Sell vs Hold Your Winners & Turning $5M into $250M with The Trade Desk | Roger Ehrenberg, Eberg Capital
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Release Date: 02/19/2024
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Cem Kansu is the Chief Product Officer at Duolingo, where he leads product strategy for over 90 million monthly active learners. Since joining Duolingo, Cem has played a pivotal role in driving record user engagement, revenue growth, and product innovation, including the launch of Duolingo Math and the wildly successful Duolingo Music. Under his leadership, the company has consistently ranked as the #1 education app globally. In Today’s Episode We Discuss: 04:12 – Cem’s Origin Story: From Google Ads to Saving Duolingo’s Business 06:45 – “Mini CEO” Myth: Why PMs Need to...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Agenda: 00:00 – Meta’s $14.8B Deal for Scale: The Analysis 05:40 – Will Scale Lose Their $800M ARR? Will All Customers Leave? 13:00 – Who is the Winner from All Scale Customers Leaving? 21:30 – Who Made the Most Money From Scale? 24:00 – LPs Just Got $14B Back. Are They Reinvesting? 26:45 – Chime IPO: The Breakdown 29:20 – Ramp Hits $16B Valuation: Are We Back in 2021? 31:10 – Ramp vs Brex vs Mercury: Who’s the Real Winner? 34:00 – Gusto Going Public with $900M in ARR??? 36:40 – Dropbox vs Glean: Can the Old Guard Survive the AI Wave? 38:50 – Is Slack Dead as a...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Larry Aschebrook is the Founder and Managing Partner of G Squared in what is one of the wildest stories of venture capital. Larry started G Squared with nothing, dialling for dollars having personally invested in Twitter and Uber. In his first fund, Larry made sizable bets into SpaceX, Palantir, Alibaba and Twitter. Larry has also had mega losses along the way (discussed in the show) in Getir, 23andme and more. Today, Larry manages over $5BN and has invested in all the best from Wiz to Spotify to Revolut and Anthropic. Agenda: 00:00 – From Broke to Billion-Dollar Bets 03:40 – The...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Agenda: 00:03 – Circle’s IPO: Investors Just Left $BNs on the Table 00:06 – CoreWeave & Circle: Are We Back to Meme Stock Madness? 00:11 – Should Stripe and Databricks Finally Go Public? 00:17 – US Stock Markets: How They DOMINATE the Global Game 00:21 – 50% of Unicorns Are DOOMED. What Happens Now? 00:25 – Founders Fund Just Dropped $1B on Anduril. Why?! 00:29 – What Would You Do If LPs Let You Go Wild? 00:36 – What Missing Out on Millions for Docusign Taught Rory 00:44 – Cursor is 20% of SaaS Spend: The Shocking Data Behind the SaaS Slowdown 00:47 – AI vs. SaaS: The...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Micha Kaufman is the Founder and CEO of Fiverr, the leading online marketplace for freelance services. Fiverr has had an insane ride in the public markets, in 2019 the company went public with a $650M market cap, at their peak that hit over $8BN. Today, facing a wave of AI, the company has a market cap of $1.121BN on an estimated $430M EOY revenues. Prior to co-founding Fiverr, Micha successfully founded and led several startups over the last 30 years. In Today’s Episode We Discuss: 00:00 – “Fuck you. It’s not my job to make you better.” Micha’s viral internal email...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Matt Pohlson is the co-founder and Chairman of Omaze, the most insane story in startups that you have never heard. From near death experience to working with Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney and The Pope. Omaze has raised over $200 million for charity by offering once-in-a-lifetime celebrity experiences and luxury house draws. He's a master storyteller, a purpose-driven builder, and one of the most creative entrepreneurs in modern philanthropy. In Today’s Episode We Discuss: 00:00 — He Died for 4 Minutes… Then Built a $400M Startup 04:00 — The Magic Johnson Moment That Sparked...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Agenda: 00:00 – The Most Unfiltered Episode Ever Begins 03:30 – Does OpenAI Even Matter? Sam Lessin Says Maybe Not. 05:45 – TVPI Is Bullshit? 09:20 – Asset Gatherers vs Real Investors: Who Actually Wins? 12:15 – The Death of the Billion-Dollar VC Fund? 16:00 – Mid-Tier VC Funds Are Getting Annihilated 21:00 – Chime: Great Exit or Missed Opportunity? 27:00 – The War on Relevance: What Companies Truly Matter? 33:00 – If You’re Not a Billion-Dollar Company, Do You Even Count? 37:10 – Mary Meeker’s AI Report: What Everyone Missed 39:50 – $600B in AI CapEx—Where Is...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Varun Mohan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Windsurf, the leading AI-native IDE, which has over a million users and generates over 50% of all committed software across thousands of companies. Prior to Windsurf, Varun graduated with a Master’s in Computer Science from MIT and led a team at Nuro focused on large-scale deep learning infrastructure for autonomous vehicles. Today's Agenda: [00:00] The $3B Startup That Only Happend on the Third Pivot [05:12] When to Give Up vs When To Stick at It [08:55] “Never Fall in Love With Your Idea” — Here’s Why [10:38] What Founders Get Wrong About...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Kyle Norton is the Chief Revenue Officer at Owner.com, where he scaled revenue from $2M to $40M ARR in under 3 years while selling to one of the toughest markets: SMB restaurants. Before Owner, Kyle led sales at Shopify, where he helped architect one of the most operationally elite GTM orgs in SaaS. Agenda: 00:00 – From Shopify to $40M ARR at Owner.com 06:40 – Why Founders Who Skip Sales Get Burned 11:50 – 90% Inbound, Then 70% Outbound — And Why Neither Is Enough 17:40 – How to Use AI in Sales to Massively Increase Outbound 24:30 – BDRs Don’t Get Paid for Demos. Only...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Agenda: 00:00 – Why “Fund Returners” Are a Myth in Late-Stage VC 05:02 – Builder.ai Implodes: $500M Gone & Fraud Allegations Begin 11:40 – The Dirty Truth About Late-Stage Venture Math 15:57 – The Hinge IPO: Who Won, Who Lost, and Why It’s a Game Changer 23:03 – The Chime Bombshell: Late-Stage VCs Forced to Crystallize Huge Losses 27:14 – Why YC Is Both Chanel and Walmart—and Has Officially Won 33:41 – Seed Is Easy. Series A Is Brutal. Here's Why 39:50 – The Silent Killer: How Dilution Is Screwing VCs Without Them Realizing 46:04 – OpenAI’s $6B Jony Ive Deal:...
info_outlineRoger Ehrenberg is a legend of the venture industry as the Founder of IA Ventures, among the most successful seed-stage venture firms of this generation, having seeded companies including Datadog (NASDAQ: DDOG), Digital Ocean (NYSE: DOCN), The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD) and Wise (LSE: WISE.L). Today Roger is the Founder and Managing Partner of Eberg Capital, a pioneer in bridging the gap among sports franchises, sports betting, media and entertainment. Roger’s current sports investments include stakes in the Miami Marlins, Real Salt Lake, Alpine Racing, Betr, Commonwealth, Kero Sports, Simplebet, SlamBall, Smarkets and WagerWire.
In Today's Episode with Roger Ehrenberg We Discuss:
1. The Commoditisation of Venture and Worsening Returns:
- Why does Roger disagree with Doug Leone that "we have moved from a boutique high margin business to a commoditised low margin industry"?
- Why does Roger believe we will see consistently worsening returns in venture?
- Is this influx of LP capital cyclical or is it here to stay?
2. The New LPs and The Broken Existing LP World:
- Why does Roger think the existing incentive structure for LPs is totally broken?
- Who are the most important new LPs entering the venture market?
- How do sovereigns and pension funds entering venture change the industry?
- Which players have capitalised on this new LP class best?
3. Where Does the Liquidity Come From:
- With the closed IPO window and lack of M&A, where will liquidity come from in the next 24 months?
- Would a Trump administration open M&A markets? Does Roger agree M&A markets are shut down?
- When does Roger believe IPO markets will open again? Will Databricks and Stripe go out in 2024?
- If Roger were to run a continuity fund strategy, how would he structure it? What would he do?
4. When to Sell and When to Hold:
- How does Roger advise managers on when to sell vs when to hold?
- How important is it for a new firm to have a company go public in the first five years?
- What are Roger's biggest lessons from selling The Trade Desk at a $2.5BN valuation?
- How does Roger think about managers thinking they should manage the public book of their portfolio for their LPs? What are the pros and cons?
5. Relationship to Money:
- Do rich investors make better investors? How does investing when you have a lot of cash already change your mindset around investing and exiting?
- How does Roger analyse his relationship to money today?
- What have been the single biggest needle movers in his wealth journey? How did it feel when he made a $6M bonus?
6. The Secrets to Parenthood and Marriage:
- What does it mean to be a great father for Roger?
- How does Roger think about bringing his children up with the same level of hunger and ambition, despite being brought up with such wealth?
- What are Roger's two biggest lessons on the secret to a great marriage?