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

Latest Episodes:

20 VC 079: BETAWORKS WEEK: East vs West Coast Investing with Peter Rojas, EIR @ Betaworks, Co-Founder @ Weblogs & Engadget Oct 14, 2015

Show notes

Peter Rojas is an entrepreneur-in-residence at betaworks focusing on early stage investments. Prior to joining betaworks he was VP of Strategy at AOL. He also co-founded several startups, including Weblogs Inc (with previous guest Jason Calacanis) (acquired by AOL in 2005), where he created tech sites Engadget and Joystiq; he also created gdgt, a social commerce platform (acquired by AOL in 2013); and gadget blog Gizmodo (now part of Gawker Media). Previously Rojas worked as an editor at the original Red Herring, a columnist on emerging technology for The Guardian, a contributor to Wired, The New York Times, Fortune, Money, and many more.

One of Betaworks investments on the west coast is the amazing ProductHunt, and you must check out ProductHunt’s new podcast section, which is the best discovery platform for finding new and amazing podcast episodes!

Also, would you like the chance to win a signed copy of Venture Deals by Brad Feld? All you have to do is leave a review on iTunes and then email harry@thetwentyminutevc.com with the name that you left the review under!

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) From tech blogger and entrepreneur to founding Engadget, and then a product person and now at Betaworks. Peter gives a snapshot of his career so far?

2.) What is Peter doing on the West Coast when Betaworks is based in NYC? How do you compare the two technology environments and ecosystems?

3.) What is involved in being EIR at Betaworks? Why has this position become so popular over the last few years?

4.) How does Peter and Betaworks approach the changing world of seed and as I have seen recently, pre seed investments? Do you have any set metrics that you stick to? What KPIs are always the first ones you look at?

5.) What VCs does Peter admire and look to emulate?

6.) What has Peter learnt from his 1st month in venture? What has been the biggest surprises and challenges about the industry?

Items Mentioned In Today's Show:

Productivity Tools: Reeder

Peter's Fave Blogs or Newsletter: Jason Hirschhorn: REDEF, ProductHunt

Peter's Fave Book: Antifragile

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Peter on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side of Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

20 VC 078: BETAWORKS WEEK: Matt Hartman, Director of Seed Investments @ Betaworks Oct 12, 2015

Show notes

Matt Hartman is director of seed investments at betaworks. Prior to joining betaworks, he was co-founder of ReferBoost, a profitable b2b company in the real estate and social media space, and JustBecause, a mobile app used by Uber, Birchbox, Jackthreads, and other e-commerce companies for customer acquisition. He started his career building the technology platform for Trammell Crow Company (acquired by CBRE) before joining Hot Potato (acquired by Facebook).

In this interview with Matt we talk about one of Betaworks investments in ProductHunt and I would love to direct you all to go check out ProductHunt’s new podcast section, it’s the best way to find new and amazing podcast episodes, check it out!

To win a signed copy of Venture Deals by Brad Feld? All you have to do is leave a review on iTunes and then email harry@thetwentyminutevc.com with the name that you left the review under!

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How you has Matt ended up at the amazing Betaworks, what was his career pre-Betaworks?

2.) How does Matt define betaworks and his role in particular in the Betaworks organisation? What makes this model the most effective and successful in Matt's view?

3.) How does Matt believe the structure of social networks alters user behavior and therefore impacts distribution? How do social networks include habit forming behaviours to ensure user retention on their networks?

4.) What does Matt think makes a strong community? What was it about ProductHunt that signaled to you this was the beginning of a rapidly growing community?

5.) With Betaworks investment in Gimlet Media, how does Matt see the future of podcasting? Does investing in Gimlet not break the rule that it has to be a potentially $bn exit?

6.) Question from Ryan Hoover, Founder at ProductHunt: ‘What product or app has impressed Matt the most in the past year and what really gets Matt excited when trying new products both as an investor and as a user’?

Items Mentioned In Today's Show:

Most Read Blog or Newsletter: Founder's Notebook by David Jaxson

Matt's Favourite Book: The Psychology of Pursuasion by Robert Cialdini

Matt's Fave Productivity Apps: Drafts

Most Recent Investment: Disruptive Multimedia by Ryan Leslie

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Matt on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

FF 016: Chad Fowler, CTO @ Wunderlist, App Of The Year 2013 Oct 09, 2015

Show notes

To win a signed copy of Venture Deals by Brad Feld, click the link below and like our Facebook page and you will be entered into the competition. https://www.facebook.com/The-Twenty-Minute-VC-769935093077190/timeline/

Chad Fowler is the CTO at 6Wunderkinder (acquired by Microsoft), the company behind the wildly successful Wunderlist, previously cited by Michael Treskow and Mattias Ljungman on the show as their must have productivity app. Prior to 6Wunderkinder, Chad was the Senior VP of technology of the daily deals site, Living Social and before that we was CTO at InfoEther, a Ruby and Ruby-On-Rails consultancy firm. Fowler is also the host and organiser of numerous tech conferences and wrote "The Passionate Programmer", a career guide for software developers.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) Where did it all begin for Chad and how did he make the move from his musician dreams to CTO of tech startups?

2.) As an American, working in Europe, how does Europe's tech community compare to the US?

3.) Wunderlist was the App of the Year, what does Chad believes makes it so special?

4.) Is there more to go in improving the consumer feel of enterprise software?

5.) How did Chad go about creating a product with such habit forming ability?

6.) Question from Carolina Brochado @ Atomico: What is it like moving from a small manned startup to a giant corporation like Microsoft?

Items Mentioned in Today's Show:

Chad's Fave Book: The E Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Chad on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side of Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital Oct 07, 2015

Show notes

For your chance to win a signed copy of Venture Deals by previous guest and legend, Brad Feld all you have to do is click the Click To Tweet Link here: http://ctt.ec/Q41ZG

Kamal Ravikant is an absolute hero to me after I read his incredible best selling book, Love Yourself Like Like Your Life Depends On It. As for an intro to Kamal, it goes without saying that he has worked with some of the best people in Silicon Valley and is a true tech and investing icon, but he has also trekked to one of the highest base camps in the Himalayas, meditated with Tibetan monks in the Dalai Lama's monastery, held the hands of dying patients, earned a US Army Infantry patch, walked 550 miles across Spain, been the only non-black, non-woman member of the Black Women's writers' group and written books including my favourite the previously mentioned, Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) Where does Kamal see the future of Venture Capital?

2.) What worries Kamal about the tech scene?

3.) How does Kamal sort the wood from the trees in the frothy market of tech startups?

4.) What are Kamal's must read books and blogs?

5.) Which leaders or figures is Kamal inspired by and why?

Items Mentioned In Today's Show:

My Fave Book: Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It by Kamal Ravikant

Kamal's Fave Book: The Alchemist, The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope

Kamal's Fave Blog: James Altucher

Kamal's Most Recent Investment: Bolt

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Kamal on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow Harry on Instagram here!

20 VC 077: PART 1: Kamal Ravikant: 'I'm Not Your Traditional VC' Oct 05, 2015

Show notes

For your chance to win a signed copy of Venture Deals by previous guest and legend, Brad Feld all you have to do is click the Click To Tweet Link here: http://ctt.ec/Q41ZG

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How did Kamal make his way into the world of Venture Capital?

2.) What were Kamal's biggest takeaways from working as an entrepreneur?

3.) What really makes a great VC? How can VCs provide true and genuine value add?

4.) Why is now the best time to be an entrepreneur? What has changed?

5.) What would Kamal advise an entrepreneur looking to build a startup?

.) Where does Kamal see the future of Venture Capital?

6.) What worries Kamal about the tech scene?

7.) How does Kamal sort the wood from the trees in the frothy market of tech startups?

Items Mentioned In Today's Show:

Kamal's Fave Book: The Alchemist, Hemingway, The Great Work of Stephen Cope,

Kamal's Fave Blog: James Altucher

Kamal's Most Recent Investment: Bolt

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Kamal on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow Harry on Instagram here!

FF 015: Y COMBINATOR WEEK: Eric Glyman, Co-Founder & CEO @ Paribus Oct 02, 2015

Show notes

Eric Glyman, Co-Founder and CEO @ Paribus (Y Combinator S15), the service which scans your inbox for receipts and automatically saves you money when the items you bought drop in price. Stores often guarantee that you will get the lowest prices. But they don’t follow through unless you work for it. Paribus does the work for you.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) What was Eric's career before Paribus and what was his a-ha moment was for the idea?

2.) How did Eric do things differently from the typical startup? Was this effective or would it have been more productive to go full in?

3.) What were Paribus' testing hypotheses like? Does Eric prefer mass market testing or niche 100 person testing?

4.) How was the admissions process for YC, why did Eric choose YC and why were YC attracted to Paribus?

5.) What would Eric advise founders looking to get into YC? Is there anything they can do or know that will increase their chances of getting into YC?

6.) What were the breakthrough moments for Paribus? What were the most challenging elements and how did Eric overcome them?

Items Mentioned In Today's Show:

Eric's Fave Book: I, Robot

Eric's Fave Blog: AppSumo by Noah Kagan

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Eric and Paribus on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, follow Harry on Instagram here!

20 VC 076: Y COMBINATOR WEEK: Aaron Harris, Partner @ YC Sep 30, 2015

Show notes

Aaron Harris is a Partner at Y Combinator and also newly one of my favourite podcast hosts with his brilliant show, Startup School Radio, for all startup lovers it is a must listen. Prior to YC, Aaron was cofounder of Sequoia backed Tutorspree, which was funded by Y Combinator in 2011. Before Tutorspree he worked at Bridgewater Associates, where he managed product and operations for an analytics group. He also writes an awesome blog which can be found here!

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How did Aaron make his move into the world of entrepreneurship with Tutorspree and then become a YC Partner?

2.) Why did Aaron join YC and why does he believe the biggest potential lies at this stage of the cycle?

3.) Now at YC, Aaron is a Partner, what does that entail, what level of interaction do you have with the founders, where does YC look to add serious value?

4.) With the mass of startups now in the 100s coming out of each YC demo day, how does YC assure the same quality and level of value add?

5.) With regards to testing what is YC’s opinion? How does YC assess whether a product does have product market fit? What are the YC requirements for growth whilst in YC?

6.) What happens after the YC experience, does YC maintain conversations and communication? How does YC try to maintain valuations at a reasonable level to stop YC price inflation?

7.) What is the future for YC? Are we going to see another funding round? Is the YC model scalable? Could we have a YC Europe?

Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:

Aaron & YC's Podcast: Startup School Radio

Aaron's Fave Book: The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, Founder's At Work by Jessica Livingston

As always you can follow Harry, Aaron, The Twenty Minute VC and YC on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

20 VC 075: Y COMBINATOR WEEK: Kirsty Nathoo, CFO @ Y Combinator Sep 28, 2015

Show notes

Kirsty Nathoo is the CFO of Y Combinator. As CFO, she holds the keys to the kingdom – literally. Not only does she control and manage Y Combinator’s internal finances, from paying bills to helping organize demo days to actually making sure Y Combinator’s money is wired to startups from the proper accounts; but she helps YC startups coordinate outside financings, tax issues, incorporation and other fiscal matters. She’s the financial brains behind the entire operation, with YC partner Harj Taggar stating that ‘YC would cease to operate if Kirsty was not around’.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Kirsty made her move from PWC in Cambridge to CFO at the World’s Most Successful Accelerator?

2.) Joining YC permanently in 2010, how has Kirsty seen it develop to today’s current state? What has been the key drivers to the success and growth of YC?

3.) As CFO Kirsty has developed a certain pattern recognition with regards to what investors and VCs like to see in the terms of startups. What are they?

4.) Kirsty has seen the progression of many startups, what are the most common problems startups face in the fundraising cycle? What are the commonalities in those that are successful?

5.) How does YC address the issue of potentially inflated valuations for their alum?

6.) What are some financials that all founders should know all the time?

7.) What is the future for YC? Are we going to see another funding round? Is the YC model scalable? Could we have a YC Europe?

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Y Combinator on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

FF 014: Making Great Founders, Idea Creation and The First 100 Days Of A Startup with Alice Bentinck, Co-Founder @ Entrepreneur First Sep 25, 2015

Show notes

Alice Bentinck is Co-Founder at Entrepreneurs First, the accelerator program that puts founders first! Previously, Alice worked at prestigious consultancy firm McKinsey & Co, before turning down an offer from Google to found Entrepreneur First alongside Matt. She taught herself to code, and founded Code First Girls in 2013 to help more women get into tech. She sits on the board of Sherry Coutu's Founders4Schools, is on Imperial College London's Department of Computing Industrial Liaison Board, and acted as the Prime Minister's expert on startups at the Northern Future Forum. She has been recognised in Management Today’s 35 under 35 and the Evening Standard’s Top 1000 most influential Londoners.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Alice came up with the idea for EF and why she decided to found the company?

2.) What would Alice recommend is the best way to build a company from scratch? EF is for technical individuals, what can non technical individuals do?

3.) What would Alice say makes a great founder? Has she seen any commonalities in the great founders that have exited EF?

4.) What is Alice's opinion on equity divisions within startups? What is the right way to approach the topic?

5.) What should teams focus on in the first 100 days of their startup? What is the 20% that produces 80% of the results?

6.) What has been the hardest aspect of growing the business and how did Alice overcome it?

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Alice on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry and many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

20 VC 074: The Future of Healthcare with Bob Kocher, Partner @ Venrock Sep 23, 2015

Show notes

Bob Kocher is a Partner at Venrock and focuses on healthcare IT and services investments. He currently serves on the Boards of Aledade and Jiff, and is a Board Observer at Grand Rounds and Doctor on Demand. Prior to Venrock, Bob served in the Obama Administration as Special Assistant to the President for Healthcare and Economic Policy on the National Economic Council. In the Obama Administration, Bob was one of the shapers of the Affordable Care Act. Before the White House, Bob was a Partner at McKinsey & Company where he led McKinsey Global Institute’s healthcare economics work and Center for United States Health System Reform.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Bob made his way from The White House to Venrock as a VC?

2.) How did working at The White House prepare Bob for his career as a VC, where does Bob have the biggest opportunity to change the healthcare system?

3.) What are the barriers to entry that a preventing full scale innovation and business growth in the healthcare IT space?

4.) Why have we seen a large increase in healthcare startups? What more would you Bob like to see in the healthcare space, either from the side of the startups or VC’s?

5.) How does Bob perceive the integration of software and healthcare in the future?

6.) As a healthcare professional, what would Bob recommend an individual with a high powered, demanding job in order to lead a healthy lifestyle?

Items Mentioned In Todays Episode:

Bob's Fave Book: The System

Bob's Most Recent Investment: Lyra Health

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Bob on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito night, you can follow him on Instagram here!