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, Lakestar
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Release Date: 11/27/2024
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The story of Monday.com is insane, turned down by most VCs, then scaled from $6M to $120M ARR in just three years. Today the company is public with a market cap of $12BN. Joining us in the hotseat today is Monday's Co-Founder and CEO, Eran Zinman. In Today's Episode with Eran Zinman We Discuss: 03:03 The Role of Video Games in Founders' Success 04:12 The Fail That Taught a $10BN Founder Everything 09:40 Pivoting to a $12BN Company: How, When and Advice on Pivots 14:15 Why 99% of Investors Turned Monday Down: Fundraising Lessons 17:05 Building a Performance Marketing Engine 21:25 How to...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Victor Riparbelli is the CEO and Co-founder of Synthesia, the world’s leading AI video communications platform for enterprises. To date, Victor has raised over $250M from Accel, GV, NEA, and more. More than 1,000,000 users and 55,000 businesses, including 60% of the Fortune 100, use it to communicate efficiently and share knowledge at scale using AI avatars. In Today’s Episode with Victor Riperbelli: 1. The Future of Models: Are we seeing the commoditisation of models? Will scaling laws continue to prove out? How far into the application layer will model providers...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Shervin Pishevar is a serial entrepreneur and investor. Shervin is famed for leading Uber’s Series B at Menlo alongside leading Warby Parker’s Series A and investing in Tumblr, all in just 18 months at Menlo. Following Menlo, Shervin co-founded Sherpa Capital and today Shervin is averaging over 73x on his investments. As an angel investor, Shervin made over 100 investments in the likes of Dollar Shave Club, Postmates, Facebook and more. In Today’s Episode with Shervin Pishevar: 08:09 Meeting Travis Kalanick: The Start of a Game-Changing Partnership 11:08 The Uber Series B: Securing...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Mikey Shulman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Suno, the leading music AI company. Suno lets everyone make and share music. Mikey has raised over $125M for the company from the likes of Lightspeed, Founder Collective and Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross. Prior to founding Suno, Mikey was the first machine learning engineer and head of machine learning at Kensho technologies, which was acquired by S&P Global for over $500 million. In Today’s Episode with Mikey Shulman: 1. The Future of Models: Who wins the future of models? Anthropic, OpenAI or X? Will we live in a world of many...
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Carvana is one of the most wild stories in the public markets. The company IPO’d with a market cap of $2BN before skyrocketing to $60BN, only for the company to lose 99% of it’s value hitting a bottom of $400M market cap. Today the company is stronger than ever and with a market cap of $41BN. Joining us in the hotseat is Dan Gill, Carvana’s CPO, the man who oversees all technology functions, as well as strategic partnerships for the business. In Today’s Episode with Dan Gill We Discuss: From $60BN to $400M Market Cap: What did Carvana do that Dan wishes they had not done? What...
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Mike Maples is one of the OG seed investors of the last two decades. As a co-founding Partner at Floodgate, Mike has been on the Forbes Midas List eight times in the last decade. Some of Mike’s investments include Twitter, Twitch.tv, Clover Health, Okta, Outreach, Chegg, Demandforce, and Applied Intuition. In Today’s Episode with Mike Maples We Discuss: 04:02 Does Seed Even Make Sense as an Asset Class? 05:16 Fund Size and Strategy: How to Do a 10x Fund? 08:12 Follow-On Investments: Are they BS? 16:41 Finding Inefficiencies in the Market 26:31 Exit Strategies and Liquidity Events:...
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Matt Plank is Rippling's Chief Revenue Officer where he oversees all Sales and Account Management functions in the US and Internationally. Matt joined Rippling in the very early days when Parker Conrad (founder) was building V1 in a basement with $0 in revenue. Today the company is a market leader with 100s of $Ms in ARR. Prior to Rippling, Matt was a Sales Director @ Zenefits where he helped the company scale to $70M in ARR. In Today’s Show with Matt Plank We Discuss: 08:25 Challenges and Strategies in Outbound Sales 10:29 Building Effective Sales and Marketing Partnerships...
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Daniel Dines is the Founder & CEO @ , one of the most incredible journeys in startups. For 10 years, UiPath was a bootstrapped company that scaled to just $500K in revenue. Then it all changed, product market fit became obvious and the rest is history. The company went on to raise funding from , Accel, Kleiner Perkins and more. Today, the company is worth over $10BN, listed on the NASDAQ and does $1BN+ in revenue. In Today’s Episode with Daniel Dines We Discuss: 1. The Future of LLMs: Why does Daniel believe that we are at the upper end of scaling laws and more compute will not lead to...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Reid Hoffman is one of the most impactful people in technology and startups. As a Founder he founded Paypal and Linkedin before moving to the investing side where he has led deals in Facebook, Airbnb and more. In Today’s Episode with Reid Hoffman We Discuss: 1. China and Tariffs: Should the US ban Tiktok and other Chinese companies, given China banning US companies presence in their country? How does Reid evaluate the rise of the Chinese car industry? What are his concerns? How does Reid hope Trump uses tariffs to advantage the US position? What is Reid concerned about what...
info_outlineThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Guillaume Moubeche is the Founder of Lempire, a company he has bootstrapped in the most competitive market in technology and scaled to a staggering $30M in ARR. Guillaume has never raised primary funding for the business but sold $10M of secondary at a $150M valuation. Guillaume is also an angel investor and and best selling author. In Today’s Episode with Guillaume Moubeche: 1. How to Build a Sales Machine: What is the biggest mistake founders make when crafting their ideal customer profile? What are Guillaume’s biggest lessons in scaling from $0-$1M in ARR? Why are most...
info_outlineKlaus 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:
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Why does Klaus totally reject the idea of price sensitivity?
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Why does Klaus hate the idea of “building portfolios”?
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Why does Klaus believe the best investments are made when there is not a fundraising round in motion?
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Why does Klaus believe that capital concentration limits on a per company basis are BS? How concentrated is Klaus happy to be?
2. Europe: What The F*** is Going On:
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Why is Europe underfinancing innovation by a factor of eight?
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Why is Europe unable to send satellites into space for six years?
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What should Europe do to become a global superpower once again? What needs to change?
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Why should European pension funds be forced to invest in venture capital?
3. The Stories Behind the $BN Returns:
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How did a dinner with Klaus’ son lead to his investing in Revolut?
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How did Klaus analysis of Friendster and MySpace lead to his buying Matt Cohler @ Benchmark’s Facebook shares?
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How did a small investment in a Swedish company, Stardoll, lead to Klaus investing in the seed round of Spotify?
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How did a conversation with Madonna’s manager lead to Klaus investing in Airbnb?