The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding

Latest Episodes:

20VC: Is SaaS Dead in a World of AI | Do Margins Matter Anymore | Is Triple, Triple, Double, Double Dead Today? | Who Wins the Dev Market: Cursor or Claude Code | Why We Are Not in an AI Bubble with Anish Acharya @ a16z Feb 09, 2026

Show notes

Anish Acharya is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), where he leads consumer and fintech investing at Series A. He serves on the boards of standout portfolio companies including Deel, Mosaic, Clutch, Titan, and HappyRobot and has led early bets in companies like Runway and Carbonated. Before a16z, he founded and exited two startups—Snowball (acquired by Credit Karma) and SocialDeck (acquired by Google) and scaled Credit Karma's U.S. Card business to over 100 million members.

AGENDA:

00:03 - Why building an AI company today requires being in San Francisco

06:58 - The "SaaS Apocalypse" myth: Why "vibe coding" everything is a lie

09:11 - How AI agents are finally breaking the lock-in of legacy software providers

10:13 - Incumbents vs. Startups: Who actually wins the AI distribution war?

14:39 - Why the developer tool market looks more like Cloud than Uber and Lyft

22:43 - The death of the Chatbox? Why browse-based interfaces are still preferable

27:14 - Why power users are 10x more valuable in the age of AI consumption

28:36 - Do margins matter in a world of AI?

34:46 - Why we are definitively not in an AI bubble right now

38:58 - Why the Legal and Customer Support industries will have dozens of winners

39:44 - Lessons from Marc Andreessen: Why the "quality of being right" supersedes process

44:51 - Is "Triple, Triple, Double, Double" dead? The new physics of growth

01:10:41 - The a16z Playbook: How to win 100% of the deals you chase

20VC: From $6.2BN Market Cap to $2.8BN: What Is Not Translating About Navan's Public Story | Are Any Public Company CEOs Actually Happy? | Why Navan Built It's Own Customer Service AI and What it Could Mean For Customer Service AI with Ariel Cohen Feb 07, 2026

Show notes

Ariel Cohen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Navan (formerly TripActions), an AI-powered travel and expense platform. Last month, Ariel took the company public, since being a public company, they have faced a torrid time seeing stock price decline by 50%. The company is currently valued between $4BN-$5BN.

AGENDA:

0:00 The Truth About Going Public After 11 Years

5:50 Why We Couldn't Wait: The Real Reason for the IPO

8:15 Disrupting the Giants: Amex, Concur, and the $1T Opportunity

11:50 "If We Don't Build This, We're Dead": Seeing ChatGPT Early

18:35 Why Navan Built Their Own Customer Service AI

23:45 Why Infrastructure is Overrated (and What Actually Matters)

28:55 Vibe Coding: How We Rebuilt Our Product in 6 Hours

34:55 Are Any Public Company CEOs Actually Happy?

38:50 Lessons from Robinhood: Energy, Ethics, and the Stock Price

45:10 The Cost of Success: $1B Mistakes and Parenting Regrets

20VC: SpaceX Completes Acquisition of xAI | The 2026 SaaS Massacre: Public Market Collapse | Microsoft's $360 Billion Market Cap Loss | NVIDIA's $100BN Investment Dispute with OpenAI | Waymo Raises $16 Billion at a $110 Billion Valuation Feb 05, 2026

Show notes

AGENDA:

00:00 - SpaceX Completes Acquisition of xAI in $1.25 Trillion Merger

08:44 - The Rehabilitation of the IPO and the End of "State Private Forever"

15:53 - The 2026 SaaS Massacre: Public Market Collapse

31:20 - Next-Gen CRM War: Hubspot Down 50%+ vs Next Gen Heavily Funded

45:30 - Microsoft's $360 Billion Market Cap Loss and the Shift in AI Narrative

52:45 - Nvidia's Strategic Retreat: The Dispute Over the $100 Billion OpenAI Investment

01:03:30 - Waymo Raises $16 Billion at a $110 Billion Valuation

01:17:30 - The Launch of OpenClaw and Moltbook: 1.5 Million Agents Join a Social Network

20VC: 50% of Funds Will Go Out of Business | Why Growth Expectations Today are BS and Will Not Last | Why Oren Zeev Takes $0 Management Fees But 30% Carry | Why GPs Should Not Tell LPs Their Strategy Feb 02, 2026

Show notes

Oren Zeev is one of the most prominent solo capitalists in venture. He is one of the most no BS investors of our time. Oren manages over $1BN in AUM and is known for his "radical alignment" approach, often taking $0 in management fees. His track record includes massive successes like Navan, Audible, and Houzz.

AGENDA:

03:11 – Why the Best Investments Always Look "Wrong" at the Start

05:58 – The AI Tsunami: How to Spot Beneficiaries vs. Victims

10:43 – The Death of Incumbents? Why Most AI Predictions Are Wrong

14:12 – Why Chasing Hyper-Growth is a "Disaster Waiting to Happen"

19:41 – The Biggest Mistakes From 2021 and Investing Lessons From It?

25:52 – Is the Future of Venture Boutique or Mega Fund: Does the Middle Die?

32:00 – The Great VC Shakeout: Why 50% of Funds Will Slowly Die

38:52 – Why Oren Zeev Takes $0 in Management Fees

50:48 – Why VCs Should Never Tell Their LPs What They Are Doing?

59:11 – How I Missed Investing in Facebook and Lessons Learned

20Growth: How Wix Built a $100M Marketing Machine | Why LTV is BS and Why Time Return On Investment is the Most Important Metric | How to 10x Your Growth: What is the Next Great Channel with Omer Shai, CMO @ Wix Jan 31, 2026

Show notes

Omer Shai serves as the CMO at Wix. Shai leads a team of over 400 people and is responsible for the company's global online and offline marketing activity, which boasts an incredible growth of approximately 3 million new users every month. Under Shai, the marketing department has executed hundreds of worldwide campaigns for television and social including 5 Super Bowl commercials, creative videos, podcasts and more.

AGENDA:

00:00 — The AI Agent Revolution: 93% Automation?

03:55 — Why I'm Buying TWO Super Bowl Ads This Year

08:58 — The $100M Marketing Secret: Brand vs. Performance

13:28 — Why LTV is Bullshit (and What You Should Use Instead)

18:52 — 10x Your Growth: How to Find Tomorrow's Arbitrage

27:10 — SEO is Dying? Why I'm Increasing My Ad Spend Anyway

31:14 — The TikTok Fail: Why Even Big Brands Can't Crack It

36:11 — Stop Selling the "Why": Put the Product in the Center

47:57 — Will AI Make You Unemployed? A Warning for Marketers

52:27 — Why Celebrity Endorsements Never Work

20VC: Brex Acquired for $5.15BN | a16z Companies are 2/3 AI Revenues | Anthropic Inference Costs Skyrocket | OpenEvidence Raises at $12BN Valuation | The IPO Market: EquipmentShare, Wealthfront and Ethos Insurance Jan 29, 2026

Show notes

AGENDA:

03:36 Brex Acquisition by Capital One for $5.15BN

10:54 Does Brex's Acquisition Help or Hurt Ramp?

16:28 TikTok Deal Completed: Who Won & Who Lost: Analysis

19:30 Anthropic Inference Costs Higher Than Expected

37:50 Open Evidence Raises at $12BN from Thrive and DST

53:56 Wealthront IPO Disaster: Is $1.5BN IPO Too Small?

01:07:27 Salesforce Wins $5BN Army Contract: The Last Laugh for SaaS

20VC: From Only OpenAI to Die-Hard Anthropic: The Downfall of OpenAI in Enterprise | Harvey vs Legora: Legal AI is a Winner Take All | $7M ARR in a Single Day and Raising $200M Across 3 Rounds with No Deck with Max Junestrand, CEO @ Legora Jan 26, 2026

Show notes

Max Junestrand is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Legora, the legal AI company that has scaled to 750 of the world's leading law firms as customers and over 300 employees in just 2 years. They have raised over $200M from some of the best in the business including Benchmark, General Catalyst, Redpoint and ICONIQ.

AGENDA:

04:16 Why Does Everyone Think Harvey When They Hear Legal AI?

07:35 Why OpenAI is Toast? Switching to Anthropic!

11:47 24 Months: Which Foundation Models Will Win?

23:53 Lessons Scaling from Europe into the US

28:53 Do Americans Work As Hard As They Say?

32:20 Why Seat Models Are Not Dead in SaaS?

36:17 How to Use Competition To Drive a Fire in Your Team?

40:59 Is Legal AI a Winner-Take-All Market? How Does It End?

47:18 The Future of Law Firms: Do Juniors Get Fired?

53:19 How We Raised $200M and 3 Rounds with No Deck

57:21 Quickfire Round: Best Advice, Closest Mentor, Biggest Mindset Shift

20VC: Raising $400M for 20VC: Fundraising Lessons | Getting Marc Benioff Through 53 Cold Emails: How to Master Cold Outbound | 7 Lessons from 101 Decacorn Founders with Harry Stebbings (Simon Squibb Edition) Jan 24, 2026

Show notes

AGENDA:

00:03:00 – Harry's Wild Start: Making £1.75M at 19 in 36 Hours

00:06:00 – How Harry Got Marc Benioff on 20VC with Cold Emailing Alone

00:07:30 – Raising $70M on WhatsApp – Relationship Building Secrets

00:12:00 – Decision Framework: What Would Pat Grady (Sequoia) Do?

00:15:00 – Chase Your First Million – It Unlocks Everything

00:16:30 – Advice for 19-Year-Olds Today: Niche Down, Interview Leaders, Publish

00:18:00 – University Is a Waste for Most | Leverage Youth & Risk

00:22:30 – How Getting Kicked Out of School Changed Everything

00:30:00 – Why Should Everyone Be Creating Content Today and How to Start

00:35:30 – 7 Lessons from Billionaires

00:36:00 – #1: Never Accept No (The $12M Turnaround Story)
00:37:30 – #2: Beat Down the Door (53 Emails to Marc Benioff)
00:39:00 – #3: Just Start – 99% Never Do
00:40:30 – #4: Use a Role Model Framework for Hard Decisions
00:42:00 – #5: Chasing Money Won't Make You Happy – Enjoy the Art
00:44:00 – #6: Break Big Visions into Achievable Milestones
00:45:30 – #7: Win Over the Partner (Power of Pillow Talk)

20VC: Sam Altman vs Elon Musk: The $100BN Battle | The Implosion of Thinking Machines | Can VC Survive Public Market Pricing Today? | ClickHouse and Replit's New Rounds: Analysed Jan 22, 2026

Show notes

AGENDA:

03:30 Can VC Survive With Public Market Prices Today

15:20 The Implosion of Thinking Machines

21:13 Elon Musk vs. OpenAI: The Legal Battle

40:50 Can OpenAI Win Ads?

55:50 ClickHouse's $15BN Deal: Analysed

58:55 Replit's $9BN Deal: Analysed

01:08:35 There Are Only Two Types of Deals VCs Want To Do Today

20VC: How Model Performance is Plateauing | Two Key Rules for Effective Deal-Making | Company Building Lessons from Keith Rabois, Brian Halligan and Pat Grady | Why Enterprise AI Adoption is Years Off with Harvey CEO Winston Weinberg Jan 19, 2026

Show notes

Winston Weinberg is the CEO and Co-Founder of Harvey, the leading professional services platform engineered with AI for law, tax, and finance. Winston has raised over $980M for Harvey from Sequoia, a16z, GV, Elad Gil and more with a last round price of $9.2BN post-money. Before founding Harvey in August 2022, Winston was an attorney at O'Melveny & Myers LLP, specializing in antitrust and securities litigation.

AGENDA:

04:10 #1 Thing Every Founder Needs to Do Everyday

05:33 Must Do Daily Routines and Productivity Tips for CEOs

12:45 How to Get Sequoia and a16z Term Sheets

15:06 Why VCs Suck at Helping Companies Hire?

27:01 What No One Understands About Enterprise AI Adoption

38:06 AI's Impact on Professional Services

39:26 Future of Law Firms: Do They Die?

43:38 What Everyone Should Know That No One Tells You About Hiring in Europe

47:08 I Have Massive Trust Issues…

54:17 Biggest Lessons on Effective Deal-Making

59:20 Cold Emailing OpenAI and It Leading to a Term Sheet