ACQ2 by Acquired

Latest Episodes:

VC Term Sheets Apr 08, 2019

Show notes

Ben & David take their turn at the "power ballad" of VC blogging/podcasting, explaining how venture term sheets work. From valuation to pro rata rights to founder vesting, we leave no stone unturned in this episode. If you're a founder, work at a startup, or are considering doing one of those someday, this episode is for you!

Sponsors:

Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast:

Acquired.fm

@AcquiredFM

Links from the Show:

Acquired LP: Lyft Episode

Acquired LP: Demystifying Corp Dev (Sara Adler)

AR&D Letter of Intent to DEC

Brad Feld: Venture Deals

CooleyGo.com
GAAP

Jeff Bezos, Vesting, and The Divorce

Perkins Coie Accelerator

SeriesSeed.com

Standard Series Seed Term Sheet [Link in Bio]

Reinventing Upfront and building LA (with Upfront partner Kevin Zhang) Mar 28, 2019

Show notes

We’re joined by Upfront Ventures partner Kevin Zhang to discuss the evolution of both Upfront as a venture firm and the LA tech ecosystem more broadly. We cover the journey from Upfront’s founding as “Global Retail Partners” in 1996 to its place today as the premier and largest tech investor in Southern California. We talk about rebranding the firm and choosing Upfront as a name, launching the Upfront Summit, what LA is "good and not good at", and Kevin’s thesis around gaming as a great place for venture investing.

Sponsors:

Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

The Art of SaaS Investing (with Jake Saper, Partner at Emergence Capital) Mar 04, 2019

Show notes

“80% of the worlds workforce doesn’t sit at a desk, and 95% of the world’s software is built for people who sit at a desk. Once people build software for the other 80%, the size of the addressable market that could be created could dwarf what we currently have, which is pretty humbling to think about.”

Jake Saper, Emergence Capital (@jakesaper)

We dive deep into the nitty gritty details of SaaS investing and company building with the best in the business, Jake Saper from Emergence Capital. Emergence has been around since the beginning of the SaaS industry and -uniquely for a venture firm- is entirely focused on early-stage investing within it. They were early investors in major successes like Salesforce, Veeva, SuccessFactors, Box and Yammer, and more recently, Gusto, Zoom, and many more.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone investing in, operating in, or thinking about modern SaaS companies!

Sponsors:

Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast:

Acquired.fm

@AcquiredFM

Links from the Show:

Emergence Capital

Emergence Capital – “Series-A SaaS Metrics”

Emergence Email Newsletter

Beyond Instagram with Emily White Feb 25, 2019

Show notes

We continue the conversation with Emily White, covering topics including her career path, what it was like working with Sheryl Sandberg for so many years, her time at Snap, her experience serving on public company boards, and how she operates as an investor now at Anthos Capital.

Sponsors:

Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Why aren't energy startups funded like software? (with Doug Rand) Feb 10, 2019

Show notes

As promised in our holiday special, we dive into the past, present and future of clean energy funding, with the absolutely perfect guest: the former Obama administration Assistant Director for Entrepreneurship at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Doug Rand. This episode was totally eye-opening for us, and we hope inspires many of you to think about energy and climate through an entrepreneurial lens.

Sponsors:

Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Links:

ARPA-E: https://arpa-e.energy.gov
Steve Blank’s Secret History of Silicon Valley: https://steveblank.com/secret-history/
NSF Innovation Corps: https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/i-corps/

Investment Theses Jan 27, 2019

Show notes

Ben and David talk about some of their current investment theses at PSL and Wave, as well as how VCs think about themes and theses in general.

Sponsors:

Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Links:

Greg McAdoo “Wave” talk at Startup School 2008 https://youtu.be/fZ5F2KhMLiE
The Myth of the Job Hopping Millenial https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2018/7/11/17559484/gig-economy-jobs-rooted-rootless-moving-job-hopping-millennials

How VC Firms Really Work Jan 13, 2019

Show notes

Ever wondered what's really going on during the Monday Meetings of your friendly neighborhood VC firm? Ben and David take you behind the scenes to discuss structure (especially how the management company works), staffing, LPs, and most importantly decision-making and motivations for VC firms and their partners. Whichever side of the table you're on, we hope you find this episode useful!

Sponsors:

Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

2018 Holiday Special Dec 21, 2018

Show notes

Ben and David continue the Acquired holiday tradition. Happy holidays to everyone!

Note: we apologize for David’s sound quality... we’re still working out the kinks on our mobile recording setup.

Sponsors:

Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Extended carve-out links:

Books:
- David: Broken Earth trilogy https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B01947LZ8A
- Ben: eBoys https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC1HTG/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Article:
- David: “My Dad's Friendship With Charles Barkley” http://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2018/12/14/lin-wang-charles-barkley
- Ben: Birth of a New American Aristocracy https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/06/the-birth-of-a-new-american-aristocracy/559130/
Podcast:
- David: 996 Podcast https://996.ggvc.com/category/podcast/
- Ben: Dissect Season 2 https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dissect/id1143845868?mt=2
Music:
- David: Tiny Desk concerts https://www.npr.org/series/tiny-desk-concerts/
- Ben: Odesza’s A Moment Apart & https://open.spotify.com/album/3VzsvmhnUb9OZ59bq2aoNZ?si=dHUDPR4tSW2u6yey0MWTFw
TV / Movie:
- Both: Black Panther https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/
App:
- David: Steady Health https://steady.health
- Ben:
  - Moment https://www.shopmoment.com
  - Weather Line: http://weatherlineapp.com
  - Auto Sleep http://autosleep.tantsissa.com

The Art of Pitching Dec 02, 2018

Show notes

Ben and David discuss “the art of the pitch” through the lens of fundraising for seed-stage companies, but the takeaways are also (hopefully) applicable far beyond!

Sponsors: