The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

The Twenty Minute VC takes you inside the world of Venture Capital, Startup Funding and The Pitch. Join our host, Harry Stebbings and discover how you can attain funding for your business by listening to what the most prominent investors are directly looking for in startups, providing easily actionable tips and tricks that can be put in place to increase your chances of getting funded. Although, you may not want to raise funding for a startup. The Twenty Minute VC also provides an instructional guide as to what it takes to get employed in the Venture Capital industry, with VCs giving specific advice on how to get noticed from the crowd and increasing your chances of employment. If that wasn't enough our amazing Venture Capitalists also provide their analysis of the current technology market, providing advice and suggestions on the latest investing trends and predictions. Join us so you can see how you can get BIG, powerful improvements, fast. Would you like to see more of The Twenty Minute VC, head on over to www.thetwentyminutevc.com for more information on the podcast, show notes, resources and a more detailed analysis of the technology and Venture Capital industry.

20VC: The Founding of General Catalyst, What it Takes to Build a Firm That Stands the Test of Time, Why VCs Need to Give Founders Greater Permission to Go For It & Why Venture Capital is Like Tennis with David Fialkow, Co-Founder @ General Catalyst is the Co-Founder and Managing Director @ , one of the leading venture firms of the last decade with a portfolio including Stripe, Snap, Airbnb, Anduril, Canva and many more amazing names. Prior to founding General Catalyst with Joel Cutler, David was a serial entrepreneur building and selling 4 successful companies. In Today’s Episode with David Fialkow: 1.) Everything Great Starts Small: How did David and Joel decide on a Hawaiin beach that they wanted to start General Catalyst? Why did they decide to name it General Catalyst? How did the first fundraise go for GC Fund I? 2.) Creating a Firm: The Early Days What design objectives did Joel and David have when they started the firm? How did Joel and David think about firm expansion; going to the West Coast? Coming to Europe? Going multi-stage? What drives their decision to do new products? On reflection, what were some of the toughest elements of the early days with GC? What does David believe they got right? Why? What did they get wrong? How would he change it? 3.) The Partnership: What does David believe makes for a truly successful venture partnership? How does a great venture partnership align to what makes a successful marriage? How does David approach trust? How does he build it with people? What situations would cause David to lose trust? Why do so few people understand it? What does David believe is the true secret to authentic relationship building? 4.) Doing the Impossible: Generational Transition: What does David believe they did so right in their generational transition at GC? What do many firms get wrong in handing over the reins to the next generation? What are the biggest commonalities between venture partnerships and filmmaking? Mentioned in Today’s Episode with David Fialkow: David’s Favourite Book: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/23122556

20VC: Which Stage of the Market Will Be Hit Hardest? The Difference Between Efficiency Driven-Growth and Capital Driven-Growth & Why Now Represents a Great Opportunity for the Secondary Markets with Ravi Viswanathan, Founder @ NewView Capital 05/13/2022

20 Product: iPhone Creator, Tony Fadell on Marketing Lessons Learned from Steve Jobs, What is Truly Great Product Marketing, How The Best Product Teams Do Post-Mortems and Product Reviews & Is Product Art or Science, Data or Gut? , often referred to as the father of the iPod is one of the leading product thinkers of the last 30 years as one of the makers of some of the most game-changing products in society from the iPhone and iPod to more recently founding Nest, creating the Nest Thermostat, leading to their $3.2BN acquisition by Google. Tony recently released Build, this is a masterclass taking 30 years of product and company building lessons and packaging them for you, check it out . In Today's Episode with Tony Fadell: 1.) Everything Great Starts Small: How did Tony make his way into the world of product in the early days? What were his biggest takeaways from the massive flop of General Magic? How did Tony come to Apple and what were the early creation days of iPod and iPhone? 2.) Data and Brand: Does Tony believe great product building is art or science? When should teams listen to their gut vs the data? When was a time that Tony listened to his gut? When was a time Tony listened to the data? How did each situation evolve and turn out? How does Tony think about creating a truly special first mile experience? Where do so many companies go wrong in the first mile today? How does Tony balance between business decisions (COGs etc) and product decisions that will delight customers? 3.) Lessons from Steve Jobs on Product Marketing: How does Tony define great product management? Why do so many people get it wrong? What are Tony's biggest lessons from working with Steve Jobs on what makes great product marketing? Where does Tony see so many companies make the biggest mistakes when it comes to messaging? What is the difference between messaging, marketing and communications? 4.) Hiring Product Teams: What are the clearest signals of the best product talent when interviewing them? What questions does Tony always ask product people to determine quality? How do great product teams remain upbeat when launches fail and remain modest when they are wildly successful? 5.) Apple Watch, iPod and Apple HiFi: Why was the product messaging for the Apple Watch wrong in the early days? How did it change? Why was the iPod a bad business until the 3rd Generation? What changed? Why did the Apple HiFi fail? How did that impact Tony's mindset? Mentioned in Today's Episode with Tony Fadell: Tony's Favourite Book: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/23074751

20VC: WTF Is Going On? 3 Outcomes for What Could Happen From Here; What Needs to Happen To Avoid Recession? Why Stagnation is Most Likely and What This Means for Startups and Venture & Why Catastrophe is More Likely Than Ever and Switzerland Could Be a "H is the Founding Partner @ , with over 700 investments, Fabrice has had over 250 exits and built a portfolio including Alibaba, Coupang, Airbnb, Instacart, Flexport, and Delivery Hero, and many more. Prior to FJ Labs, Fabrice served as CEO for three multinational companies; including OLX, one of the largest websites in the world with over 300 million unique visitors per month. As a result of his incredible investing success, Fabrice was named the In Today's Episode with Fabrice Grinda: 1.) Everything Great Starts Small: How did Fabrice make his way into the world of investing from founding 3 companies? How does Fabrice feel about founders raising funds with external LPs? Why does Fabrice feel that investing as an angel made him a better CEO? 2.) WTF is Going On: The Market Today How does Fabrice assess what is happening in the market today? What is causing the massive public market drops we are seeing? How do inflation rates and interest rates have such an impact on where we are? How much of this is a result of COVID, the shift to goods from services and supply chains? 3.) The Optimistic Case: How does Fabrice think things could get better from here? What needs to happen? What could the Fed do to enable this optimistic outcome to take place? What would need to happen in geo-politics and Russia for this to happen? What is the probability today of this optimistic case happening? 4.) The Great Stagnation: How does Fabrice think the economy could go sideways from here? What are the core drivers of this? Why is this the most likely outcome of all? What is the probability of this happening? 5.) The Catastrophe: How could this market get so much worse? What level of interest rate change would cause this outcome to occur? Why does Fabrice think that Switzerland is a "House of Cards"? What would this mean if Switzerland fell? What other European countries does Fabrice think are vulnerable? 6.) What this Means for Venture: How will LPs respond to these differing situations? How does this impact how Fabrice thinks about his rate of deployment? What segment of the market is Fabrice most excited for; early or growth? Mentioned in Today's Episode with Fabrice Grinda: Fabrice's Favourite Book: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/23047559

20VC: Why the Traditional Seed Fund Model No Longer Works, Why Multi-Stage Funds Investing at Seed Bring Signaling Risk but also Less Pressure, The One Criteria All Potential Sales Hires Need to Have and The Clear Signs of 10x Sales Hires with Jason Lemki is the Founder and Managing Partner @ , a social community of 500,000+ SaaS founders and a $100M venture fund. In the past, Jason has made investments in the likes of Algolia, Talkdesk, Pipedrive, and RevenueCat to name a few. Prior to SaaStr, Jason was the Co-Founder and CEO @ Echosign, backed by Emergence Capital, Echosign was bought by Adobe and is Adobe Sign as we know it today. In Today’s Episode with Jason Lemkin You Will Learn: 1.) Origins into Venture: How Jason made his way into the world of venture having sold EchoSign? What were some of Jason's biggest lessons from his first 4 investments being unicorns? 2.) The Importance of Ownership & Multi-Stage Funds How does Jason assess the importance of ownership today? If companies can be $20BN, does ownership really matter? How does Jason advise founders who have offers from multi-stage funds at seed? Why does taking multi-stage money at seed result in less pressure for founders? Does Jason believe that signaling risk from large funds is real, when investing at seed? 3.) Building Your Sales Team Does the founder have to be the one to create the sales playbook? What are the nuances? Should you hire a Head of Sales or sales reps first? What should you expect from each? What are the one criteria that you must look for when hiring your first sales reps? What are the signals that a sales rep or leader is a 10x hire? What works when hiring sales reps, 80% of the time? 4.) Boards and VC Value Add: Why has Jason changed his mind when it comes to boards? Why are some inefficient and some very efficient? How do the best founders manage their board? How do they bring in their exec team? What is the right documentation to prepare for board meetings? Why does Jason prefer slide decks over Notion and Coda? How can leaders use board meetings to direct and goal set with functional leads? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Jason Lemkin Jason’s Most Recent Investment: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/23026082

20VC: The Memo: Chris Sacca on Why We Are Breeding a Generation of Entitled Assholes, Harley Finkelstein on What Great Fatherhood Really Means, Deena Shakir on How Kids Make You a Better Investor and Anne Wojcicki on How Children Change Your Approach to R is the Founder and Chairman @ , one of the with a portfolio including Uber, Stripe, Twitter, Instagram, Twilio, Docker and many more. Why does Chris believe we have bred a generation of asshole kids? What is the right way to negotiate with children? How has that impacted how he manages his team? is the Founder & CEO @ , offering DNA testing with the most comprehensive ancestry breakdown, personalized health insights, and more. How did having kids change Anne's approach to time allocation and risk? is the President of Shopify. Over the last 12 years, Harley has partnered with Tobi to the tune of building Shopify’s revenue to over $4.6BN in 2021 and the team to over 10,000 employees. Does Harley believe he has always been a good father? What changes has Harley made to be more present and there for his children? Why does Harley advise couples therapy as early in a relationship as possible? is a Partner at , one of the leading firms investing in emerging science and technology ventures at the outermost edges of what is possible. What specific negotiation tactics from parenting can be applied to business? How can a parent show their children they listen, they understand and are there for them? Why does Deena believe children make you more productive and more efficient? is a General Partner @ , one of the leading later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms of the last decade with $8.7 billion of committed capital and a 40-year IRR of 43.1%. What have been the biggest challenges for Eric of managing family and work? What have been some of Eric's biggest lessons in terms of how he communicates about his work to his family? is Vice Chairman of the Board of Pure Storage and served as the Company’s CEO from 2010 to 2017. Under his leadership, Pure grew to thousands of employees and completed an IPO in 2015. What can parents learn from nature programs? What core elements of parenting are directly transferrable to management? /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/23001521

20VC: Scaling to $2BN AUM in 3 years, Fundraising Lessons and Tactics from 2,500 LP Meetings & What it Takes to Build a Firm That Stands the Test of Time with Harley Miller, Co-Founder and Managing Partner @ Left Lane Capital is the Founder and Managing Partner @ , one of the fastest-growing growth equity firms of the last five years. Just yesterday, Left Lane announced the closing of their new fund taking their AUM to over $2BN with an early portfolio including M1 Finance, Masterworks, Choco, GoStudent, to name a few. Prior to founding Left Lane, Harley spent over 9 years at Insight Partners investing in the likes of DeliveryHero, HelloFresh, N26, Calm, Udemy and many more breakout companies. In Today’s Episode with Harley Miller You Will Learn: 1.) Origins into Venture: How Harley made his way into the world of venture with his first role at Insight? What were Harley's biggest lessons and takeaways from 10 years at Insight? 2.) Left Lane: Fundraising What are harley's biggest takeaways on fundraising from speaking to 2,500 LPs for Left Lane I? With that experience in mind, what advice does Harley give to other first time fund managers on what it takes to raise successfully? How did the Left Lane pitch to LPs change over time? What worked? What did not work? With the benefit of hindsight, what fundraising elements would Harley have done differently? 3.) Left Lane: Firm Building What are the hardest elements of building a firm today? How did Harley navigate the transition from investor to fund manager? What was challenging? What is Harley's biggest advice to young people in venture looking to scale their career fast? What are 1-2 core inputs aspiring VCs should focus on as they build their career? 4.) Left Lane: Investing and Consumer How does Harley approach portfolio construction with the new fund? How does Harley think through outcome scenario planning and ownership requirements with the new fund? How does Harley think traditional growth equity models can be applied to consumer investing? What will Left Lane be in 20 years? What firm does Harley want to build? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Harley Miller Harley’s Most Recent Investment: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22975940

20VC: Scaling to $122M ARR IPO with $6M in Net Burn, Olo. The Ultimate Journey of Capital Efficiency, What Worked, What Did Not Work and How Leaders Need To Reshape Thinking Around Resource and Attention Allocation is the Founder and CEO @ Olo, the interface between restaurants and the on-demand world powering millions of orders per day. Olo is an incredible tale of capital efficiency, at IPO the company had a net burn of just $6M with $122M in ARR. Noah raised from some of the best in the business with names such as David Frankel @ Founder Collective, Danny Meyer, Scott Shleifer @ Tiger Global, all on the cap table. Prior to founding Olo, Noah was International Expansion Manager for Endeavour Global, launching the first African Endeavour affiliate. If that was not enough, Noah is also on the board of Portillo's, Share our Strength and the Culinary Institute for America. In Today’s Episode with Noah Glass You Will Learn: 1.) The Founding of Olo: What was the founding a-ha moment for Noah with Olo? What did David Frankel do that compelled Noah, now was the time to start Olo? What have been some of Noah's biggest lessons from working with David Frankel? 2.) Capital Efficiency: Scaling to $122M ARR with $6M Net Burn Why did Noah and the team not raise more money in the early Olo days? How does Noah advise early founders who are concerned if they do not raise, their competition will? What are 2-3 of the core levers that allow Olo to be so efficient? What can others learn from them? What would Noah have done differently fundraise wise, with the benefit of hindsight? 3.) Decision Making: The Secret What does Noah mean when he says; "capital allocation and attention allocation are intertwined"? How has Noah changed and evolved his decision-making as a leader? How does Noah use a CEO coach? What do they discuss? How often? What works? What does not? What decision did Noah make that proved to be the wrong one? How did he come back from it? 4.) Noah Glass: The Father and Husband How does Noah do so much as CEO and also not lose an inch on being an amazing father and husband? What does Noah believe is the secret to a truly successful marriage, while also being public markets CEO? How has Noah changed as a father and husband over the years? What has worked? What has not worked? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Noah Glass Noah’s Favourite Book: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22950650

20 Sales: Zoom's Head of North America Sales on When To Hire a Head of Sales, Why You Should Hire a Head of Sales Before Sales Reps, The 3 Traits to Look for When Hiring Sales Reps & What Sales Leaders Can Do To Make Their Sales Team Feel Like They Are Wi is Head of North America Sales at Zoom Video Communications. Before joining Zoom, Mitch spent over 5 years at RingCentral including as Senior VP of Worldwide Sales and Customer Success. Finally, before RingCentral, Mitch was at Oracle for over 7 years in numerous different sales roles. In Today’s Episode with Mitch Tarica You Will Learn: 1.) Entry into Sales: How did Mitch make his way into sales with one of the first SaaS companies in the world? What were his early lessons on what truly great sales entails? What elements does Mitch fear we have lost in the art of sales over time? 2.) The Playbook: Should the founder be the one to create the sales playbook? What are the signs that the founder has a repeatable and scalable playbook? When is the right time to make the first sales hire? Should it be a Head of Sales or Sales Rep? How does the first hire depend on whether you are PLG or enterprise sales led? 3.) The Hiring Process: How does Mitch structure the hiring process? Step by step, what does he want to achieve? What questions does Mitch ask in the first interview, always? What are the 3 traits that Mitch believes all great sales hires have? How does he test for them? How do Zoom use practical sales tests to determine the ability of a potential sales hire? How does Mitch see many founders make mistakes in the sales hiring process? 4.) Sales Onboarding: What are the crucial steps to do sales onboarding right? How should leaders structure the first 30,60 and 90 days for their new reps? What are some early red flags that leaders should watch for with new reps? What more can leaders do to make sure their reps are as successful as possible in the early days? /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22926779

20VC: Why You Should Think Twice Before Taking Multi-Stage Money at Seed, Why Venture Has Never Been Less Collaborative, How Becoming a Parent Made Me a Better Investor and Why We Should Be Optimistic About the Future of Diversity in Venture with Deena Sh is a Partner at , one of the leading firms investing in emerging science and technology ventures at the outermost edges of what is possible. Deena has led a number of investments including in Maven Clinic, Mos, Ramp, Alife and SteadyMD to name a few. Before joining Lux, Deena was a Partner at GV and previously led product partnerships at Google for early-stage products in healthcare, AI/ML and search at Google. Before tech and venture, Deena was an aspiring anthropologist, journalist, diplomat, aid worker and was a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of State under Secretary Clinton. There Deena helped launch President Obama’s first Global Entrepreneurship Summit in 2010. In Today’s Episode with Deena Shakir You Will Learn: 1.) Origins into Venture: How Deena made her way from journalism and the world of politics to rockstar healthcare investor? What were Deena's biggest takeaways from seeing her parents build a new life in the US? 2.) Competition in Venture: Why should founders not take multi-stage fund money at seed? What problems does it cause? How do VCs try and justify it? What red flags should founders look for? How does Deena advise her companies when it comes to pre-emptive rounds? When should they take them? When should they not take them? 3.) Deena Shakir: The Person How has becoming a parent changed Deena's operating mentality? Why does Deena believe she has never been better as an investor post becoming a mother? Why does Deena feel so many questions around parenting are wrong? In what ways would she like those questions of female operators and investors to change? 4.) Diversity and Inclusion: We Should Be Optimistic Why is Deena optimistic about the future of diversity and inclusion in tech and venture? What drives her optimism? What remains a cause for concern for Deena on this topic? What more can both companies and venture funds do to improve the landscape? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Deena Shakir Deena's Favourite Book: Deena's Most Recent Investment: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22897514

20VC: How Today's Market Changes How Companies Should Approach Burn and Runway, Are Financing Markets Closing? How To Know When To Pay Up vs Stay Price Disciplined & Why The Most Important Thing in Venture is Generating Positive Selection with Bill Cilluf is Partner and Head of International Investments at , one of the leading fintech venture firms today with a portfolio including Nubank, Kavak, Klarna, Quinto Andar and Bitso to name a few. As for Bill, he has led investments in Nubank, Loft, Wagestream and Creditas among others. Prior to joining QED, he spent nearly 20 years at Capital One, spanning several roles and leading several businesses. During Bill’s last 3 years at Capital One, he led its Co-Brand and Private Label credit card business, building the business nearly from scratch to one of the top few players in the US market. In Today’s Episode with Bill Cillufo You Will Learn: 1.) Origins into Venture: How Bill made his way from 20 years at Capital One to becoming a Partner @ QED? How did Capital One inform his mindset around unit economics? Having seen booms and busts firsthand with Capital One, how did that impact his investing mindset today? 2.) The Landscape: What is Happening? Where does Bill believe the biggest crunch in funding markets is today? Does Bill believe this will trickle down to the early stage? How does Bill advise his portfolio companies on runway and burn given the environment? What does Bill believe that many have not seen that is coming? 3.) Bill Cillufo: The Investor How does Bill analyse his own relationship to price and price sensitivity? How has Bill changed as an investor over the last 5 years? What caused the changes? How does Bill reflect on reserves management given the new landscape we are in? 4.) QED: The Expansion Does Bill believe that expanding geographically has become easier with time? What has become harder about expanding into new geographies? How important does Bill believe partnering with local firms is when VCs enter new territories? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Bill Cillufo Bill’s Favourite Book: Bill’s Most Recent Investment: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22875965

20 Product: Robinhood CPO on The 3 Stages of Product Management, How to Structure and Execute Great Product Reviews, The Secret to Building a World-Class Hiring Funnel in Product Team Building with Aparna Chennapragada is Chief Product Officer @ , the company revolutionizing consumer finance with commission-free investing, and tools to help shape your financial future. As for Aparna, prior to Robinhood, she spent an incredible 12 years at Google, most recently as VP and GM for Consumer Shopping and also as the lead AR and Visual Search products. Aparna is also an active angel investor with a portfolio including Khatabook, Statsig and On Deck to name a few. If that was not enough, Aparna is also a board member at Capital One. In Today’s Episode with Aparna Chennapragada You Will Learn: 1.) Origins in Product: How Aparna made her way into the world of product and product management? What were Aparna's biggest takeaways from her 12 years at Google? What does product management mean to Arpana today? 2.) Customer Discovery: 101 What are the 3 different stages of product management? What does great customer discovery look like? What are the best questions to ask? How should one dig deeper? Where do so many make mistakes in customer discovery? What should product people take from the answers? What should they disregard? 3.) The Hiring Process: How should founders breakdown the process of hiring for their first in product? What does the interview process look like? How should founders structure it? What core questions should teams ask of prospective candidates? What are red flags when interviewing potential product hires? What literal tests and case studies can founders do to test the quality of candidates? 4.) The Onboarding Process: How should founders structure the onboarding process for new product hires? What can founders do to make PMs successful in their first 30 days? Where do many product hires make the biggest mistakes in the first 30 days? What can product hires do to build trust with their new team? Items Mentioned in Today's Episode with Aparna Chennapragada Aparna's Fave Resource: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22851239

20VC: Brex's Henrique Dubugras on Advice from Evan Spiegel and Eric Schmidt on CEOship, The Biggest Hiring Mistakes When Scaling, What Everyone Gets Wrong with Product Messaging and When is the Right Time to Launch Secondary Products is the Founder and CEO @ , the company re-imagining financial systems so every growing company can realize its full potential. To date, Henrique has raised over $1.1BN for Brex from some of the best including Ribbit, Greenoaks, DST, IVP, Caffeinated Capital and Elad Gil to name a few. Henrique is also a board member at Mercado Libre. Prior to co-founding Brex, Henrique co-founded Pagar.me, there he scaled the company to $15BN in GMV and over 100 people before selling the company in 2016. In Today’s Episode with Henrique Dubugras You Will Learn: 1.) The Founding of Brex: What was the founding a-ha moment for Henrique and Pedro with Brex? What advice did Evan Spiegel give Henrique when it comes to being a great CEO? 2.) Hiring: The Trials and Tribulations What have been Henrique's biggest hiring mistakes? How do founders know when they are ready to bring in the seasoned exec vs the younger jack of all trades candidate? What have been Henrique's biggest lessons in what it takes to hire true A* talent? Where does Henrique see other founders make big hiring mistakes? 3.) Product Expansion and Marketing: How does Henrique assess when is the right time to release a second product? What have been Henrique's biggest mistakes and lessons when it comes to product marketing? How can one retain the simplicity of product messaging with scaling the product? Brex expanded the product too far, too fast. How did they walk it back so successfully? 4.) Henrique: The Leader How does Henrique approach his own relationship to money today? How has it changed over time? What luxury expenditure has Henrique made over the last 12 months that he feels is worth it? How does Henrique think about ego management? What does he do to keep his in check? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Henrique Dubugras Henrique’s Favourite Book: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22803452

20VC Exclusive: Fast's Domm Holland on What Really Happened at Fast? Were they really Burning $10M per Month? Where did Bolt Succeed Where Fast Did Not? What is It Really Like To Have Stripe Invest in your Company? 04/13/2022

20VC: Why Crypto is Software Eating Money, Why Crypto Firms Will Outcompete Traditional Venture Firms, How To Price Tokens and When To Have Them, DAOs: How Are They Structured and What Makes One Successful with Avichal Garg, Co-Founder @ Electric Capital is Co-Founder & Partner @ , last month Electric announced they had raised $1BN for their new fund making them one of the largest independent and crypto-native VC firms in the world. As for Avichal, prior to Electric, he was an investor in crypto projects such as Anchorage, Bitwise, Lightning Labs, and OpenSea and unicorns such as Airtable, Cruise, Deel, Figma, Notion and many more. On the operating side, Avichal successfully sold his last company to Facebook where he became Director of Product Management for the Local product group, a team of 400 engineers responsible for billions in revenue. In Today’s Episode with Avichal Garg You Will Learn: 1.) Origins into Venture: How did Avichal make his way into the world of startups and angel investing? How did Avichal make the pivot from software to crypto investing? Was Avichal nervous when making the move to institutionalize what had been personal investing? What does Avichal know now that he wishes he had known at the start of Electric? 2.) The Landscape: Crypto Investing How does Avichal assess the crypto fund landscape today? Will we continue to see a small number of firms (a16z, Katie Haun, Paradigm, Electric) dominate the market? What happens to all the small crypto funds that have been raised in the last year? Why does Avichal believe crypto investing is much more collaborative than venture investing? How can venture size returns be made if the ownership levels are so much smaller? 3.) Crypto Firms vs Traditional VC Firms: Why does Avichal believe that crypto is software eating money? What does this mean for traditional venture? Who will survive? Who will die? Who will thrive? Why can generalist firms not compete with crypto native firms? How are the teams of crypto native firms structured so differently to those of traditional VCs? Do crypto projects and investments need the same level of service and help that generalist VCs provide with their platform services? 4.) Tokens - Equity - Liquidity: How does Avichal advise investors on how to think through token vs equity investing? When does it make sense to have a token vs not having a token? How are crypto tokens priced and valued? What do you need to know when buying tokens? How does the liquidity of crypto markets make it challenging for investor psychology? What is the biggest lesson Avichal has learned on when is the right time to sell? 5.) DAOs: 101 What are DAOs? Are they not just another form of government? What makes one DAO successful and another not? What tooling and infrastructure are required to manage a DAO successfully? What does Avichal believe the vision of a DAO should be? How should they define success? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Avichal Garg Avichal’s Favourite Book: Avichal’s Most Recent Investment: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22750079

20VC: What Happens To Growth Rounds in this New Environment? Where is the Funding Crunch? How Does This Impact M&A and Going Public? How do Crossover Funds Respond? What Does it Mean For Early Stage and more with Eric Liaw, General Partner @ IVP is a General Partner @ , one of the leading later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms of the last decade with $8.7 billion of committed capital and a 40-year IRR of 43.1%. At IVP eric has led investments in Datadog, Github, Klarna, Robinhood and UiPath to name a few. Prior to joining IVP, Eric was with Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) and was actively involved in originating, executing and managing investments, including Netflix, Zillow and eHarmony. As a result of his investing success, Eric was recognized by GrowthCap as one of the Top 25 Software Investors of 2021 and 2020. In Today’s Episode with Eric Liaw You Will Learn: 1.) Origins into Venture: How did Eric make his way into the world of venture way back over 20 years ago? What were some of Eric's biggest lessons from his early years at TCV? What are the most significant changes in venture over the last decade? 2.) Eric Liaw: The Investor: How has Eric changed as an investor over the last decade? What caused those changes? How does Eric reflect on his own relationship to price? How does he determine when to pay up vs when to remain disciplined? What has been Eric's biggest miss? How did it alter his style of investing? From UiPath to Supercell, what has been Eric's favourite story of travelling around the world to win a deal? 3.) The Market: Venture How does Eric expect IPO markets to behave as we move further in 2022? How does Eric expect large M&A to play out for the rest of the year? With the public markets crashing; how does this impact the large growth rounds of 2021? What does Eric expect to happen to early stage pricing with the crash at late stage? How does Eric expect crossover funds to behave in this new environment? 4.) Eric Liaw: The Person How does Eric think about being an awesome Dad and also not losing an inch on being a world class investor? How does Eric reflect on his own ego when having such large investing wins? Where does he feel he is most insecure? How did having children really impact his mindset towards investing and working with founders? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Eric Liaw Eric’s Favourite Book: Eric’s Most Recent Investment: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22726211

20 Growth: Why Retention Defines Product Market Fit, What is Good Retention Levels Today, The Most Counterintuitive Elements of Product and Growth & Why So Many Startups Mess Up Hiring For Growth Teams with Brian Hale, Head of Consumer Product & Growth @ Brian Hale is Vice President of Consumer Product & Growth @ Doordash. Before joining Doordash, Brian spent an incredible 10 years at Facebook, most recently as VP of Product Growth working across Instagram, Messenger, Whatsapp and more. Prior to Facebook, Brian was Director of Growth @ Uptake.com and it all started for Brian in 1999 working at ACDSee in Canada where he was asked to “figure out that search engine thing”. In Today’s Episode with Brian Hale You Will Learn: 1.) Brian Hale: Entry into Growth: How Brian made his way into the world of growth from being a "marine ceramic engineer"? What were 1-2 of his biggest takeaways from his 10-year journey with Facebook? What are 1-2 of the biggest misconceptions about the Facebook growth team? 2.) When is the Right Time: When is the right time for startups to hire their first growth leads or reps? How should the founder allocate resources to the growth team? Hire new designers, engineers etc for the team or pluck them from existing teams within the company? What are the biggest mistakes startups make on the timing of this hire? How can startups accurately assess whether they have product-market-fit? What levels of retention suggest PMF? How does this change by industry? 3.) Who To Hire: Step by step, how does Brian structure the interview process for all new growth hires? What are the must-ask questions for growth leaders to ask candidates in interviews? What are the clear signs and answers that suggest a 10x growth hire? How do the very best interact with data? What do they really hone in on? What literal tests does Brian do to determine the quality of a hire? How do the best perform? 4.) Onboarding and Integration: What is the optimal onboarding process for all new growth hires? What can leaders do to set their new growth teams up for success? What are the biggest ways new growth hires can mess up in the first 60 days? What have been some of the biggest challenges for Brian in his onboarding at Doordash? /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22699142

20VC: Founding Legendary Entertainment and Creating Batman, The Hangover and 300, The Importance of Luck vs Skill in Success, How Relationships to Money Change & Why Velocity is the Most Important Factor in Company Building Success with Thomas Tull Thomas Tull is a leading entrepreneur and investor as the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Tulco, LLC. he has made notable investments in the likes of FIGS, Colossal, IL MAKIAGE, Pinterest, Zoox and Oculus Rift. Previously, Tull was the founder, CEO and Chairman of Legendary Entertainment, the film company that produced blockbusters including The Dark Knight trilogy, 300 and The Hangover franchise. Outside of his investment work, Thomas is a trustee of Carnegie Mellon University, Yellowstone Forever, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution. If that was not enough, Tull is also part of the ownership group of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the six-time Super Bowl champions. In Today’s Episode with Thomas Tull You Will Learn: 1.) From Laundromats to Legendary Entertainment: How did Thomas first make his way into the world of business starting with laundromats? How did growing up without money impact Thomas' early mindset? What advice does Thomas give to young people today on starting their own business? 2.) Thomas Tull: The Investor: How does Thomas approach risk today? Where is the boundary of acceptable vs unacceptable risk? How does Thomas assess his own relationship to money? How has it changed over time? How does Thomas protect himself from people and occasions where one is being used for their money or status? To what extent does Thomas believe success is luck vs skill? 3.) Legendary Entertainment: How did Thomas make his way into the movie business with the founding of Legendary Entertainment? How did Thomas first meet Chris Nolan? What did the early days of making Batman Begins look like? What were some of the most memorable times from making 300 with Gerard Butler? What were some of the most challenging elements of scaling Legendary? With the benefit of hindsight, is there anything that Thomas would do differently? 4.) The Macro: Why does Thomas believe public markets are the least rational they have ever been? From geo politics to climate change, what is Thomas most worried about today in the world? What does Thomas believe we should focus on as positives moving forward? What should we be excited about? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Thomas Tull Thomas' Favourite Book: Sapiens: Thomas' Most Recent Investment: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22670561

20VC: The Biggest Mistakes Startups Make Hiring, The 2 Reasons Startups Fail and How to Avoid Them, Why Most Startup Equity Plans are F****** and Why You Should Scrap Titles From Your Company with Eddie Vivas, Founder & CEO @ Curated is the Co-Founder and CEO @ , a network where product experts monetize their passion and help consumers make the perfect purchase. To date, Eddie has raised over $141M from some of the best including CapitalG, Greylock and Forerunner to name a few. Eddie is also a stellar angel investor with a portfolio including Telegram, Truebill, AppLovin and Dollar Shave Club among others. Prior to Curated, Eddie spent 3 years at Linkedin as Head of Talent Solutions, following his startup, Bright, being acquired by them in 2014. In Today’s Episode with Eddie Vivas You Will Learn: 1.) The Founding of Curated: What was the aha moment for Eddie with Curated? What were Eddie's biggest takeaways from his prior companies? What did he take with him that worked? What did he disregard that did not work? What were some of Eddie's biggest lessons from Linkedin? How did it impact his mindset? 2.) The Compound Startup: Why did Eddie decide it was right to build so much of the tooling themselves? How does Eddie determine when to buy vs build? What are the biggest mistakes Eddie sees founders making when building multiple internal tools at the same time? How does build a compound startup increase the strategic value of a company? 3.) Hiring: Missionaries not Mercenaries How does Eddie structure his hiring process at Curated? Why does he not believe that startups are for everyone? What are the biggest signals that a person is a missionary and not a mercenary? How do mercenaries act in a way that is different to missionaries? What questions in an interview process show these traits? What are some of the biggest mistakes Eddie has made when hiring? 4.) Equity and Compensation: What is Eddie's biggest advice to founders when it comes to equity allocations for the team? Why does Eddie believe it is crucial to offer and provide secondaries for the team? How does Eddie feel about the amount of secondaries founders take today so early? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Eddie Vivas Eddie’s Favourite Book: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22646987

20 Sales: Notion's CRO Olivia Nottebohm on How To Build Great Operations at Your Company, How To Use The Trust Equation in Hiring, How To Do Referencing Most Effectively and Whether To Fill Seats or Wait for the Perfect Hire? is the Chief Revenue Officer @ where she leads the Sales, Marketing, Customer Success and Customer Experience teams. Prior to Notion, Olivia was the COO @ Dropbox where she achieved the first 4 quarters of profitable growth. Before Dropbox Olivia spent over 5 years at Google including as VP Cloud GTM Operations and Global SMB Sales. Finally, before Google, Olivia spent a whopping 15 years at McKinsey & Company. In Today’s Episode with Olivia Nottebohm You Will Learn: 1.) Origins: How Olivia made her way into the world of startups and tech? What are 1-2 big takeaways Olivia has from her 5+ years at Google? How have they shaped her operating mindset today? How does Olivia balance her love for analysis and data with speed and agility of decisions? 2.) Good vs Great Operations (Ops): What does great ops really mean to Olivia? What are the 1-2 things founders can implement today to improve their ops immediately? What are the core mistakes founders make when instilling ops for the first time? How does Olivia coordinate the global Notion team to be as effective as possible? What has worked? What has not worked? 3.) The Hiring Process: Why does Olivia believe all leaders will have to accept they will not have all the talent they need over the coming years? With that in mind, is it best to hire B players or always keep the bar high? If and when can the bar be lowered? How does Olivia construct the hiring process? What are the core questions she will always ask? What is the secret to great referencing? How does Olivia enable the other side to feel safe telling her everything they know about the candidate? 4.) Cross-Functional Communication: How does Olivia advise founders on the best way to get different functions working together? What works? What does not? What are some big mistakes Olivia sees over and over? At what point in company scaling does this comms begin to breakdown? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Olivia Nottebohm /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22619312

20VC: Lessons Scaling Insight Partners to a $20BN Latest Fund, The Two Biggest Learnings on Price, How to Manage and Train Young People in Venture, Why Business Classrooms Do Not Work and How to Assess the Two Commodities in Life; Money and Time with Jeff is the Managing Director @ , one of the leading investing franchises of the last 25 years with their most recent flagship fund announced earlier this year being a staggering $20BN. As for Jeff, over the last 24 years at Insight, he has led investments in leading companies such as Qualtrics, DeliveryHero, HelloFresh, Cvent, Mimecast, and Udemy. As a result of his many investing successes, he has been selected by AlwaysOn as a Venture Capital 100 winner and by Forbes as a member of the Midas List. In Today’s Episode with Jeff Lieberman You Will Learn: 1.) Origins into Venture: How did Jeff's roommate at college open his eyes to the world of venture capital? What were Jeff's biggest lessons from seeing the work ethic of his parents? How does Jeff imbue the same level of ambition on his children that he had growing up with no money? Why is Jeff keen for his children not to go to college? How does he advise them? 2.) Jeff Lieberman: The Investor: What are Jeff's biggest observations on the current landscape given his seeing first hand the dot com bust and 2008? How is now different? How is it the same? Price Sensitivity: How does Jeff reflect on his own price sensitivity? How has it changed over time? Deployment Pace: How does Jeff analyse deployment pace today both for the industry and for Insight? Does Jeff agree with the notion of "playing the game on the field"? The Biggest Miss: What have been some of Jeff's biggest misses? How did those misses impact the process with which he invests? 3.) Insight: The Firm What are the most challenging elements of firm building today? Why do all juniors have control over the Partners calendars? How does this work in practice? How does Jeff create an environment of safety where very young, junior people feel like they can challenge anyone and have discussion? How do Insight train young people? What is the process? What works? What does not work? 4.) AMA: What does Jeff know now about venture that he wishes he had known when he started? What would Jeff most like to change about the world of venture capital? What advice does Jeff give to young people today entering the industry? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Jeff Lieberman Jeff’s Favourite Book: Jeff’s Most Recent Investment: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22591472

20VC The Memo: Inside the Growth Engines of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Instacart with the Growth Leaders Who Built Them; How Instagram Went from 440M to 1BN, How Twitter Changing Their Signup Flow was a Needlemover and How Removing Card Payment Requ is the Chief Product Officer at where he leads the PM, product design, research, and growth marketing teams. Prior to Eventbrite, Casey spent close to 3 years at Pinterest where he led the growth product team. is one of the pre-eminent growth leaders of the last decade. Andy’s career started in growth at Facebook when the company scaled from 100M-500M active users. Since he has worked in some of the leading growth orgs at companies like Twitter, Quora and more recently at Wealthfront as Head of Growth and President. is the Head of Platform Growth @ , a live streaming mobile marketplace that combines commerce, entertainment, and social. Prior to Popshop, Bangaly led the product growth and consumer product orgs at Instacart and before Instacart was Head of Growth @ Instagram, where he built and led the product team that helped grow Instagram from 440M to > 1B monthly actives in 2.5yrs. is a master when it comes to all things starting and scaling growth organizations. Previously, Elena spent over 7 years as SVP Growth @ SurveyMonkey where she ran product, growth marketing, and data teams. Post SurveyMonkey, Elena worked with the rocket ship that is Miro both as Interim CMO and as an advisor. is an angel investor and growth advisor to various startups including Lime, Zwift, Whoop, Crimson Education, GoPeer, and Playbook. Ed was the VP of Product and Growth at Uber from 2013-2017. Prior to Uber, Ed was the Head of International Growth at Facebook. is Chief Growth Officer and Co-founder at , the healthcare technology company building a patient-centric healthcare system. Under Rob’s growth leadership, Ro has become one of the fastest-growing companies in the country. Prior to Ro, Rob was VP of Growth at Bark, the makers of BarkBox, and helped scale revenue from zero to $100 million. In Today’s Episode with Ed Baker You Will Learn: 1.) Casey Winters: How does Casey define "growth"? How does it differ from product? How do the best growth leaders decide between art vs science when making growth decisions? 2.) Andy Johns: What is Andy's biggest advice to founders looking to build their first growth team? What unexpected choice did Andy decide to make at Twitter that moved the needle for new user acquisition? 3.) Bangaly Kaba: What were some of Bangaly's biggest takeaways from scaling Instagram from 440M users to 1BN? What decisions did Bangaly make without data? How did they go? What did he learn? 4.) Ed Baker: What are Ed's biggest takeaways from facebook around structuring growth teams? What are Ed's biggest pieces of advice for startyups looking to grow internationally? What were some of Ed's biggest learnings from working with Travis @ Uber? 5.) Elena Verna: What is the difference between a good vs great growth model? When does one need to change or amend their growth model? How does one know when it is working? 6.) Rob Schutz: Why does Rob believe that startups should not diversify their customer acquisition channels too quickly? How does Rob assess resouirce allocation and spend on new channels? How did this process look when partnering with the MLB for Ro? /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22567316

20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot is the Founder & CEO @ , the fastest-growing marketplace in the US, empowering people to make a living off their passion. To date, Grant has raised over $225M for Whatnot from the likes of CapitalG, a16z, YC, Scribble Ventures and Wonder Ventures to name a few. Prior to Whatnot, Grant was a PM @ Facebook working on the Oculus App Store and before that was the founder of Kit.com, ultimately acquired by Patreon. In Today’s Episode with Grant LaFontaine You Will Learn: 1.) The Founding of Whatnot: How did Grant make his way into the world of tech and startups? What were some of his biggest lessons from Facebook? How did that impact how he has built Whatnot? 2.) Impossible To Hire Product Managers: Why does Grant believe it is impossible to hire product managers today? How does this impact the decision-making powers of engineers? How does Grant test for this product knowledge in all engineers he adds to the team? What are clear signals of 10x engineers in hiring processes? 3.) A/B Testing and Risk Mindset: Why does Grant not believe in the effectiveness of A/B testing? Why does it not work? Why does Grant believe one of the biggest reasons for startups failing is they do not take enough risk? How does Grant try to ensure that his team takes as much risk as possible with everything that they do? How does mindset to risk change with scale of company and with leadership? 4.) AMA: Why does Grant disagree with founders angel investing? What are the biggest challenges Whatnot has faced in scaling? CEO coach? Who? When? What is the biggest lesson? What is the single driving metric of Whatnot? How does Grant advise founders to determine their North Star metric? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Grant LaFontaine Grant’s Favourite Book: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22542164

20VC Exclusive: Sequoia's Luciana Lixandru Unveils Sequoia's New 8 Week Accelerator, Arc | Biggest Takeaways from Working with Doug Leone and Roelof Botha | The Journey From a Small Town In Romania to Partner @ Sequoia is a Partner @ , one of the world’s most renowned and successful venture firms with Sequoia-backed companies accounting for more than 20% of NASDAQ's total value. As for Luciana, at Sequoia she has led investments in the likes of PennyLane, Xentral, Veed and Ledgy to name a few. Prior to joining Sequoia in 2020, Luciana was a Partner @ Accel where she made investments in Hopin, Miro, UiPath, Tessian and Deliveroo. As a result of such investing success, Luciana was #2 on the Midas List in 2021. In Today’s Episode with Luciana Lixandru You Will Learn: 1.) Origins: How did Luciana make her way from a small town in Romania to being Partner @ Sequoia? What were the 1-2 crucible moments in her life that changed the course of her life? 2.) Luciana: The Investor How has Luciana's investing style changed and developed over the years? How does Luciana reflect on her own relationship to price? What misses caused these changes? Hopin, Miro, Deliveroo, UiPath, how did having such winners so early impact Luciana's investing mindset? What would Luciana say is her biggest insecurity today? What drives this? 3.) Sequoia: The Team What are Luciana's biggest takeaways from working with Doug Leone, Alfren Lin, Roelof Botha and Pat Grady? What does the decision-making process look like for new deals within Sequoia? How does the Sequoia partnership create an environment of safety where everyone can discuss and debate freely? How does Luciana approach training and mentorship? What works and what does not? 4.) Sequoia in Europe + Sequoia's Arc: What is Arc? Why was now the right time for Sequoia to do it? What is the structure for the program? How many startups are part of it? Who is able to apply? How much capital do the startups receive? What else do they receive in mentoring etc? In 5 years time, what would success look like for Luciana with Arc? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Luciana Lixandru Luciana’s Favourite Book: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22512548

20 Product: Lenny Rachitsky on The 3 Key Roles of the Product Manager, 5 Skills All The Best PMs Have, When To Hire Your First PM, How to Structure the Hiring Process for PMs & What Leaders Can Do to Make Their PMs Successful is one of the OGs of product, having spent over 7 years at Airbnb as a product lead he left to start his newsletter, find it . This has scaled to thousands upon thousands of readers and is one of the most popular newsletters on Substack. Lenny is also an extremely active angel investor with a portfolio including Figma, Sorare, Clubhouse, Vanta, WhatNot and many more incredible companies. If that was not enough, Lenny also has the best course on product management, check it out . In Today’s Episode with Lenny Rachitsky You Will Learn: 1.) Origins in Product: How did Lenny make his way iunto the world of product management at Airbnb? What were some of his biggest takeaways from his time at Airbnb on product? What mistakes did he make on product at Airbnb? How did it impact his product thinking? 2.) Product Management: 101 How does Lenny define product management today? How is the role of PM changing? When is the right time to hire your first PM as a startup? What is the difference between Head of Product and CPO? When do you hire each? What are the biggest mistakes founders make when hiring their first product hires? 3.) The Hiring Process: How should founders breakdown the process of hiring for their first in product? What does the interview process look like? How should founders structure it? What core questions should teams ask of prospective candidates? What are red flags when interviewing potential product hires? 4.) The Onboarding Process: How should founders structure the onboarding process for new product hires? What can founders do to make PMs successful in their first 30 days? Where do many product hires make the biggest mistakes in the first 30 days? What can product hires do to build trust with their new team? Items Mentioned in Today's Episode with Lenny Rachitsky Lenny's Fave Book: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22465667

20VC: David Friedberg on The Framework for Business Value Creation, The Bifurcation in Venture Today That No One Talks About, The Impact of Interest Rate Hikes on Venture and Step by Step; How TPB Incubates, Funds and Exits The Next Generation of Companie is Founder and CEO of (TPB), a holding company established to solve the most fundamental problems that affect our planet, by reimagining global systems of production. Prior to founding The Production Board, David founded The Climate Corporation, a 10-year journey that culminated in their $930M acquisition by Monsanto. If that was not enough, David is the Founder and Chairman at Metromile and also sits on the board of Soylent, Clara Foods, Tillable, Cana Technologies and more. In Today’s Episode with David Friedberg You Will Learn: 1.) Origins: How David made his way into the world of startups and technology from academia and physics? What were David's biggest takeaways from scaling The Climate Corp to $930M exit to Monsanto? How did the exit put pressure on David for all future companies he builds? How does he manage that? 2.) The Macro: Venture + The Economy How does David foresee the impending rate hikes? What impact will this have on venture and the economy? What segment of the market will be first to be hit? Why is growth investing last to be hit? How does early stage play out in this very new environment? How will we see the velocity of capital deployment change in this new period? What does David believe are some of the crucial flaws of the venture model? How does David reflect on his own price sensitivity? What lessons has he learned from deals he has done or missed that have changed his perspective? 3.) David Frankel: The Business Builder What is David's rubrik for business value creation? How has this changed with time? How mentally plastic does one have to be around the time it takes to see margins, unit economics etc change from negative to positive? How does David and the team approach building new companies at TPB? Where do they find the founding teams? How do they incentivise them? How does TPB approach continuous funding for the companies they create? What milestones need to be hit? How do they assess them? How does David approach liquidity with regards to exits for the companies they create? Why does their holding company structure mean they have different incentives to VCs? 4.) David Friedberg: Father and Husband How does David reflect on his own relationship to money today? How has it changed over time? What have been David's biggest realisations on what provides him true happiness? How did having children change his operating mentality? What does being a great father mean to David? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with David Friedberg David’s Favourite Book: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22438802

20VC: Gitlab CEO Sid Sijbrandij on Why You Are Not Allowed to Present in Meetings at Gitlab, Why it is a Pipedream We Will Go Back to Offices and What is the Future of Work & CEO Coaches; What Makes The Best, When To Have Them and When To Change Them is the Co-founder & CEO @ . GitLab’s single application helps organizations deliver software faster and more efficiently while strengthening their security and compliance. Prior to their IPO last year, Sid raised funding from some of the best including ICONIQ, GV, Tiger, Coatue and D1 to name a few. Under his leadership, the company has grown to over 1,500 employees and over 30 million registered users. If that was not enough, Sid is also an active angel and sits on the board of Meltano, a spinout of Gitlab that allows you to manage all the data tools in your stack. In Today’s Episode with Sid Sijbrandij You Will Learn: 1.) The Founding of Gitlab: How did Sid make his way into the world of tech and startups? What was it about Gitlab as a project that excited Sid so much from Day 1? How did Sid convince his co-founder to turn Gitlab from a project into a company? 2.) The Future of Work: Why does Sid believe it is a fallacy that everyone will go back to the office? What are the 1-2 most important things for companies to do when moving to a remote work environment? Where does Sid see many make mistakes? What have Gitlab done to create a remote working environment so successfully? What have they tried that has not worked? What stage of company building does remote work best for? When is it most challenging? 3.) Sid: The Leader How has Sid changed and evolved as a leader over the Gitlab journey? How does Sid look to get as much feedback as possible on his leadership? How does Sid create an environment of safety where everyone feels they can provide feedback? How does Sid work with his CEO coach? Should every CEO have one? What should one look for in them? How do you know when you need to change your CEO coach? 4.) Sid: The Board Member: What have been Sid's biggest lessons on what makes successful board management? In prep for the meeting, what materials does Sid provide? When does he send them? Does he present to the board? What mistakes do founders make in boards? From being on the other side as a board member, what does Sid believe the best members do? What would Sid most like to change about board meetings today? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Sid Sijbrandij Sid’s Favourite Book: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22415096

20 Sales: The Stripe Sales Playbook; Who Should Create It, When Should it Be Done, Where Do Many Go Wrong | How To Identify 10x Sales Hires and How To Structure the Hiring Process in Sales with Jeanne DeWitt Grosser, Head of Americas Revenue & Growth @ St is Head of Americas Revenue & Growth @ Stripe. In this role, Jeanne is responsible for all sales functions across the region including Sales Development, AEs, Solutions Architects, and many more. Jeanne also continues to spearhead Stripe's Enterprise strategy. Prior to this role, Jeanne was Stripe's Head of North America Sales where she built out Stripe's Acquisition Sales teams. Pre-Stripe, Jeanne was CRO @ Dialpad and also spent many years at Google in numerous different roles including most recently as Director of GSuite SMB & Mid-Market Sales, North America and LATAM. In Today’s Episode with Jeanne DeWitt Grosser You Will Learn: 1.) Entry into Sales: How did Jeanne make her way into her first sales job in tech? What did Jeanne learn from her many years at Google about how sales should interact with engineering? In hindsight, what would Jeanne have done differently/improved from her time with Dialpad? How did the role with Stripe come about? 2.) The Playbook: Does the founder need to be the one to create the sales playbook? When is the right time to bring in the first sales hire? Should they be a sales leader or rep? How does both the playbook and the type of sales hire change when hiring for a product-led-growth motion vs a traditional enterprise motion? What are the single biggest mistakes founders make when hiring their first in sales? 3.) The Hiring Process: How should founders structure the hiring process for their first sales hires? What did Dialpad do in the sales hiring process that worked well? How has Jeanne taken that to her hiring process at Stripe? What should be achieved or learned in each consecutive interview? How can founders use sales case studies most effectively? How can founders know if sales candidates truly have a strong grasp of the product? What are early signs of a 10x sales hire? What are red flags to look out for in the process? 4.) Sales Onboarding: What does the ideal onboarding process look like for new sales hires? What tasks and duties should all sales hires perform in the first 60 days? What are early signs that a new hire is not performing to the right standard? How does the first few months differ for sales reps when comparing a product-led-growth company to an enterprise company? What should sales leaders do to ensure that new hires engage with product and customer success efficiently? /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22391327

20VC: Shopify President, Harley Finkelstein on What is Being a Good Husband, What is Being a Good Father & How to Embrace Vulnerability and Authenticity in Leadership and Marriage 03/07/2022

20VC: Shopify President, Harley Finkelstein on What is Being a Good Husband, What is Being a Good Father & How to Embrace Vulnerability and Authenticity in Leadership and Marriage is the President of Shopify, the platform modern commerce is built on. Over the last 12 years, Harley has partnered with Tobi to the tune of building Shopify's revenue to over $4.6BN in 2021 and the team to over 10,000 employees. On the side, Harley is an Advisor to Felicis Ventures and in the past has held board seats at CBC, Omers Ventures and The C100. If that was not enough, you can see Harley on a screen near you as one of the “Dragons” on CBC’s Next Gen Den. In Today’s Episode with Harley Finkelstein You Will Learn: 1.) The Founding Story: What was Harley's first entrepreneurial endeavour? How did seeing his family lose everything impact Harley's mindset and ambition? How did Harley first meet Tobi @ Shopify? How did the Shopify journey begin? 2.) Leadership Lessons: How has Harley changed as a leader over the 13 years with Shopify? How does Harley embrace vulnerability and authenticity in his communication with the team? What is Harley most insecure about when he looks at leadership today? What have been some of the biggest lessons Harley has learned from his board on what great leadership is? 3.) The Art of Marriage: What does Harley believe makes the most successful marriage? Why have Harley and his wife been seeing a marriage therapist from the early days? What is the biggest mistake people make when communicating with partners? How has Harley changed as a husband over the years? 4.) The Joy of Fatherhood: Does Harley always believe he has been a good father? What was his realisation moment that he was not being the father he wanted to be? What core elements of his behaviour did he change? How did that impact his relationship with his kids? How does Harley ensure he performs at the highest level while also being there and being present for his family? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Harley Finkelstein Harley’s Favourite Book: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22362764

20VC: 3 Biggest Mistakes Founders Make When Scaling, Management 101 on Trust Building, Morale Maintenance and Hiring & What We Can Learn About Parenting From Nature Programs with Scott Dietzen is Vice Chairman of the Board of Pure Storage and served as the Company’s CEO from 2010 to 2017. Under his leadership, Pure grew to thousands of employees and completed an IPO in 2015. Dietzen is a four-time successful entrepreneur with WebLogic, Zimbra, and Transarc. Before Pure, he was President and CTO of Zimbra (now part of VMware), but originally acquired by Yahoo!, where Dietzen served as interim SVP of Communications and Communities. Prior to Zimbra, Dietzen was CTO of BEA Systems, where he helped craft the technology and business strategy for WebLogic that drove BEA from $61m in annual revenues prior to the WebLogic acquisition to over $1B. In Today’s Episode with Scott Dietzen You Will Learn: 1.) The Journey to Pure Storage CEO: How did Scott make his way into the world of tech and startups? What was the hardest element of making the transition from CTO to CEO? What advice would Scott give to more technical leaders looking to make the move to CEO? Where do so many make mistakes? 2.) How To Build Trust in a Team: What are the most important ways that leaders can build trust with their teams? How can leaders be honest and share the hard truths without damaging role? What is the right tone to communicate both the big wins and big losses? Why does Scott always believe the losses teach more? How does Scott approach post-mortems? 3.) The Biggest Mistakes Founders Make: What are the single biggest hiring mistakes that founders make? What are the single biggest firing mistakes executives make? Why should founders sometimes say no to customers? How should founders approach investor selection and valuation for rounds? 4.) How to Optimise a Board: What specifically can founders do to optimise their board? What are the biggest errors founders make when communicating with their board? What is the value per word framework? How does it tell which board member is the best? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Scott Dietzen Scott’s Favourite Book: /episode/index/show/thetwentyminutevc/id/22283261

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