20VC: Sam Altman on The Trajectory of Model Capability Improvements: Will Scaling Laws Continue | Semi-Conductor Supply Chains | What Startups Will be Steamrolled by OpenAI and Where is Opportunity
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Release Date: 11/04/2024
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
George Arison is the CEO of Grindr. The app that results in 40% of lesbian and gay marriages, the average user uses the app for 1 hour per day and sends more messages on Grindr than they do Whatsapp. The company will do over $300M in revenue in 2024 with a 40% EBITDA margin. One of the insane public company success stories. Prior to Grindr, George was the Founder and CEO of Shift, which he took public in 2020. In Today’s Episode with George Arison We Discuss: 1. Wild Story of How the Chinese Bought and Lost Grindr: How did the Chinese come to buy Grindr and then fire the founder? ...
info_outline 20VC: Revolut Founder Nik Storonsky on When and Where Revolut Will IPO & What Revolut Need to Do to Hit $100BN ValuationThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Nik Storonsky is the Co-Founder and CEO of Revolut, one of the fastest-growing companies in the world with a $45BN valuation and 50M customers around the world. In July 2024, Revolut posted a whopping $2.2BN in revenue with $545M in pre-tax profit in 2023. To date, Nik has raised $1.8BN for the company from the likes of Index, Balderton, Ribbit, DST and TCV. In Today’s Show with Nik Storonsky We Discuss: 1. When & Where Will Revolut IPO: What does Revolut need to do or change before they are ready to go public? When would Nik like for Revolut to go public? When they do go...
info_outline 20Product: Is an AI Winter Approaching | The Future of AI Software Development: What is Real & What is BS | OpenAI: WTF is Going on & How Far Into Application Layer Do They Go | The Future Role of Software Engineers with Guy PodjarnyThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Guy Podjarny founded Tessl, Snyk and Blaze. Tessl is reimagining software development for the AI era and shaping AI Native Development. Snyk created and leads the Developer Security category, and is now a multi-billion dollar company with over 1,000 employees. Guy was previously CTO at Akamai (following its acquisition of Blaze), is an active angel investor, and co-hosts of the AI Native Dev podcast. In Today’s Episode with Guy Podjarny We Discuss: 03:02 Discussion on NVIDIA's Market Position 04:14 Will We See a Trough of Disillusionment in AI 07:36 The Future of AI Development and...
info_outline 20VC: Why Price Sensitivity is BS | Why "Portfolios" are Merely a Construct to Make LPs Happy | Why the Best Investment Never Happen in "Fundraising Rounds" | What Europe Needs to do to Become a Superpower Again | Klaus Hommels, LakestarThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Klaus Hommels is one of Europe’s leading start investors of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Spotify, Airbnb, Facebook, Coinbase, Revolut and more. Among his many responsibilities, Klaus is the Founder of Lakestar, his own venture fund and chairs the board of directors of the NATO Innovation Fund. In Today’s Episode with Klaus Hommels We Discuss: 1. The Investing Rules that are BS: Why does Klaus totally reject the idea of price sensitivity? Why does Klaus hate the idea of “building portfolios”? Why does Klaus believe the best investments are made...
info_outline 20VC: Discord's Jason Citron on Why Everything We are Taught About Hiring & Management is BS | Do Richer Founders & Gamer Founders Make Better Founders? | Never Before Told Moments Behind Scaling to 200M UsersThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Jason Citron is the Co-Founder and CEO of Discord, a voice, video and text platform for friends playing games. Jason has raised $1BN for the company and was able to scale to 200M users. Prior to co-founding Discord, Jason founded OpenFeint, the biggest social mobile gaming platform, which sold to GREE in 2011 for $104 million. In Today’s Episode with Jason Citron We Discuss: 1. Leadership Lessons That are Total BS: Hiring: Why does Jason believe hiring experienced executives is the worst thing you can do for your company? What did he learn by doing it? Culture: Why does Jason...
info_outline 20Sales: What I Learned Scaling Datadog from $60M to $1BN in ARR | How to do Outbound in 2024 | Why Discounting is Dangerous and Contract Sizes are Misleading with Dan FougereThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Dan Fougere is one of the most successful sales leaders of the last decade. Most recently, Dan was Chief Revenue Officer for Datadog, growing revenues from $60 million to $1BN ARR. Before Datadog, Dan was Head of Global Sales at Medallia where he created the Mediallia sales playbook. In addition, Dan is also a minority owner of the New York Yankees. In Today’s Episode with Dan Fougere: 1. Lessons Scaling Sales to $1BN in ARR at Datadog: What did Datadog not do that Dan wishes they had of done? What did they not do that Dan wishes they had done? What does Dan know about...
info_outline 20VC: Turning $16.5M into $2.1BN; Lessons from the Greatest Venture Investment in European History: UiPath | Why VC is Not Being Commoditised | Why Price Does Not Matter | Lessons on Loss Ratio, Selling and Signalling with Cem SertogluThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Cem Sertoglu is one of the great venture investors of the last decade. Cem is famed for writing the first check into UiPath and over several rounds turning $16.5M into $2.1BN. Cem recently started Bek Ventures, a $250M fund that was 3x oversubscribed. In Today’s Show with Cem Sertoglu We Discuss: 1. Has Venture Capital Been Commoditised: Why does Cem believe that VC has not been commoditised? Why does Cem believe many VCs today are not even VCs anymore? How does Cem advise founders who have offers from large multi-stage firms? What questions should they ask them pre-working with...
info_outline 20VC Alain De Botton on Why Companies Are Not Families | Why Status is Making You Miserable | Why Parents Want Their Kids to Fail | Why We Are Richer Yet More Anxious Than Ever & Why You Should Not Always "Be Yourself"The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Alain De Botton is one of the greatest philosophers of our time. His work has had a profound impact on me more than any other. I have wanted to do this episode for the last 8 years. In Today’s Episode with Alain De Botton We Discuss: 1. Why Status is Making You Miserable: Why are we richer yet more anxious than ever? What is the right way to define status? Why do we want it so much? Is it bad to want status? What are some non-obvious signs that you are seeking status when you do not realise it? Does social media enhance the desire for status? How so? Do the happiest...
info_outline 20Growth: Inside Perplexity's Growth Machine: What Worked, What Did Not Work | Why Paid Acquisition is a Drug and Brand Marketing is BS | The Good, Bad and Ugly of A/B Tests and Why Micro-Optimisations are Under-Rated with Raman MalikThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Raman Malik is the Head of Growth at Perplexity where he is responsible for growth marketing, onboarding, activation, retention, and monetisation. Prior to Perplexity, Raman, was an early member of the growth team at Lyft and joined Perplexity earlier this year after his own startup journey. In Today’s Episode with Perplexity’s Head of Growth: 1. Inside the Perplexity Growth Machine: What have been the single biggest needle movers in the growth of Perplexity? What has not worked? What have they learned from that? How have partnerships driven growth? Lessons on what makes...
info_outline 20VC: Bolt; The Most Insane Story in Startups | Turning a $5K Loan into an $8BN Company | Why Every VC Turned Down One of Europe's Biggest Winners | Competing with Uber & The Future of Micromobility and Self-DrivingThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Markus Villig is the Founder and CEO of Bolt, a global mobility platform with more than 200 million lifetime customers in more than 50 countries and 600 cities. Bolt has raised over €1 billion in funding from investors like Sequoia, D1 and G Squared, making Markus the youngest founder of a billion-dollar company in Europe. In Today’s Episode with Markus Villig: 1. Starting an $8BN Company: How did Markus come up with the idea for Bolt before Uber existed? How did Markus find his co-founder? Why did 30 people turn down the chance to co-found Bolt? What are Markus’ biggest tips on...
info_outlineSam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, one of the most important companies in history. OpenAI is on a mission to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. Prior to OpenAI, Sam was the President of Y Combinator and an angel investor in Stripe, Airbnb, Reddit and Instacart.
15 Questions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman:
1. Will the trajectory of model capability improvement keep going at the same rate as it has been?
2. When did Sam doubt the continuance of scaling laws most? What has been the hardest technical research challenge OpenAI have overcome?
3. How worried is Sam about semiconductor supply chains and international tensions around them?
4. What is Sam’s biggest worry today? How has it changed over the last 12 months and 5 years?
5. In what ways does Sam feel he was and is unprepared for the role of CEO of OpenAI?
6. Was Masa Son right to suggest that $9TRN of value will be created every year by AI?
7. Why does Sam disagree with Larry Ellison’s statement that it will cost $100BN to enter the foundation model race?
8. Was Keith Rabois right that the best way to build companies is to hire under 30s?
9. What unmade decision weighs on Sam’s mind most often?
10. What is Sam most grateful to Y Combinator for?
11. What would Sam build if he were a 23 year old starting today with the foundational AI technology that is already in place?
12. What should startups not try and build as OpenAI will steamroll them? What should they try and build where OpenAI will not go?
13. What does Sam believe is the most exciting use of agents that he has not seen created yet?
14. How does Sam believe that human potential is most wasted today?
15. Who does Sam most respect in the world of AI today? Why them?