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

Latest Episodes:

20Sales: Everything You Know About Sales Playbooks is Wrong | How to Hire and Train Your First Sales Hires | How to Crush Pipeline and Deal Reviews as a Team | How to Structure Sales Teams and Sales Comp Plans with Julian Teixeira, CRO @ 1Password Mar 07, 2025

Show notes

Julian Teixeira is the Chief Revenue Officer at 1Password, where he has grown B2B revenue over 8x and scaled a team of more than 450 in go-to-market. 1Password set the record for the largest raise in Canadian history at the start of 2022 and has raised nearly $1B in capital throughout his time with the company. Prior to 1Password, Julian served as the head of global sales at Lightspeed Commerce, a company he helped scale from startup to IPO and through over 10 acquisitions throughout his decade-long tenure.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

04:27 Sales Lessons from Scaling to $1BN in ARR

05:20 How to Create and Master a Sales Playbook

07:53 Lessons on First Sales Hires

09:41 Setting Goals and Targets for Sales Teams

13:22 The Reality of Tech Sales Today

16:19 Evaluating and Managing Sales Reps

19:07 Outbound Prospecting and Pipeline Generation

22:22 Hunter vs. Farmer Sales Models

24:15 Compensation and Specialization in Sales Teams

28:56 Outbound vs Inbound Sales

32:47 Pipeline and Deal Reviews

37:37 Sales Tech Stack and Tools

38:40 Maintaining Sales Morale

44:55 Are Remote Sales Teams Less Effective

46:44 Final Thoughts and Advice

This episode is brought to you by:

Gong, the revenue AI platform centralising all your revenue workflows in a single unified platform.

Capchase, helping SaaS companies grow without dilution. Learn more at capchase.com/20vc

20VC: Lovable on Hitting $17.5M in ARR in 3 Months | Adding $2.1M ARR Every Week | Hitting 85% Day 30 Retention: Better than ChatGPT | The Story of Europe's Fastest Scaling Company with Anton Osika Mar 05, 2025

Show notes

Anton Osika is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Lovable, the fastest growing startup in Europe. With Lovable, you can turn your idea into an app in seconds with just a prompt. After just 3 months, the company has scaled to $17.5M in ARR. They are adding $2M in net new revenue every single week. Even better, Lovable has 85% Day 30 retention rate, making it more retentive than ChatGPT.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

03:41 How a Side Project Turned into a $200M Company

05:39 Why Talent is 10x More Valuable Than Experience

08:57 How to Use a Waitlist Pre-Launch to 10x Growth

12:29 How to Master a Public Launch: $0 - $1M ARR in a Week

18:02 Why Raise a Large Seed Round

22:22 How Sustainable is Lovable and AI Revenue

25:22 What are Lovable's Biggest Threats: Incumbents or Open Source

27:00 Raising Series A: Should You Always Take the Money

27:46 How to Compete in the US from Europe

28:25 Is Europe as F****** as the World Thinks

29:02 Building in Europe vs. Silicon Valley

31:20 The Future of Foundation Models: Who Wins

33:47 Grok vs OpenAI vs Anthropic: Buy and Short

41:37 Quickfire Round: Insights and Reflections

20VC: Anthropic CPO Mike Krieger: Where Will Value Be Created in a World of AI | Have Foundation Models Commoditized | When Do Model Providers Become Application Providers | What Anthropic Learned from Deepseek Mar 03, 2025

Show notes

Mike Krieger is the Co-Founder of Instagram and now CPO @ Anthropic.

In Today's Episode with Mike Krieger We Discuss:

03:07 Where Will Value Be Created and Sustained in a World of AI?

04:59 Are Foundation Models Commoditised Today?

08:36 Should Founders Build for the Models of Today or Build for Models of the Future

12:19: Why Will Models Become More Different Than More Similar

16:38: Will Human or Synthetic Data Be More Prominent in the Future

19:28 Model Quality vs. Product UX

23:36 The Competitive Landscape of AI

32:27 Do We Underestimate China's AI Capabilities

33:59 What Did Anthropic Learn from Deepseek

34:07 Is Deepseek a Sustaining and Credible Threat?

37:04 Transitioning from Model Provider to Application Provider

38:26 Where Has Anthropic Chronically Under-Invested

39:08 Why Has Anthropic Been Slow On Consumer Product Development

43:50 What is the Role of a Software Developer in the Future

48:29 Balancing API and Consumer Products

51:09 Is Europe Stronger or Weaker in a World of AI

52:40 Quickfire Round: Insights and Reflections

20Growth: Inside Ramp's Growth Engine: How Ramp Became the Fastest Growing SaaS Company Ever | What Worked & What Did Not Work | How to Hire for Growth | How to Find Alpha in Channels Where No One Else Can with George Bonaci Feb 28, 2025

Show notes

George Bonaci is the VP of Growth at Ramp, where he's helping one of the fastest-growing fintech companies scale even further. Prior to Ramp, George was VP of Growth at Gong. Before Gong, George was at Samsara where he helped grow revenue from $650M ARR, and played a pivotal role in the company's successful IPO.

In Today's Growth Masterclass We Discuss:

03:57 How the Best Growth Teams Experiment

05:10 How to Allocate Bets and Resources for Growth

07:09 Velocity vs. Quality in Growth

15:05 The Role of Postmortems and How to Do Them

19:16 Growth Team Structure and Standalone or Not?

20:01 The Three Ways to Find Alpha in Growth

30:01 How to Hire for the Best Growth Hires

31:30 How to do Take-Home Assignments When Hiring for Growth

32:51 Common Pitfalls in Hiring Growth Talent

34:16 Investing in Management and Learning

42:43 How AI Changes Growth Products and Strategies

46:43 Quick Fire Round: Common Mistakes and Growth Channels

20VC: The Insane Story of Glovo: Selling 30% of the Company for €100K | The McDonalds Deal That Saved Them | Running out of Money Three Times | Burning $1M Per Day | Being Acquired for $2.2BN with Oscar Pierre, Founder @ Glovo Feb 26, 2025

Show notes

Oscar Pierre is the Founder and CEO @ Glovo, the food delivery site that will get you anything you want to your doorstep. This story is insane, the company was started by Oscar 11 years ago, in their pre-seed round they sold ⅓ of the company for €100K. The company was later saved by a deal they made with McDonald's. The company nearly ran out of money on several occasions, one time the funding round came from the CEO of Rakuten who Oscar met an FC Barcelona drinks. Today, they are a part of DeliveryHero who acquired them for $2.2BN, they have delivered 1BN orders and have almost 60M customers.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

04:27 Starting with Nothing

07:30 The First Funding Round: Selling ⅓ of the Company for €100K

09:23 Marketplace Dynamics and Expansion

15:34 The McDonald's Deal That Saved the Company

18:38 Running out of Money Three Times: Fundraising Hell

25:57 International Expansion: What Worked

29:25 Lessons from Failures: What Brazil Taught Us

31:36 How to Win in Emerging Markets

32:02 The Burn Rate (Burning $1M per day) and Investor Concerns

33:29 Scaling Challenges and Competitor Threats

34:29 The Biggest BS Elements of Company Values

35:40 How I Ruined the Culture of the Company

41:14 Layoffs and Talent Management

42:06 Biggest Lessons from M&A

44:41 The Future of Quick Commerce

45:38 Acquisition by Delivery Hero

48:56 Post-Acquisition Reflections

54:47 The CEO on Trial and Facing Prison

20VC: Why Google Will Win the AI Arms Race & OpenAI Will Not | NVIDIA vs AMD: Who Wins and Why | The Future of Inference vs Training | The Economics of Compute & Why To Win You Must Have Product, Data & Compute with Steeve Morin @ ZML Feb 24, 2025

Show notes

Steeve Morin is the Founder & CEO @ ZML, a next-generation inference engine enabling peak performance on a wide range of chips. Prior to founding ZML, Steeve was the VP Engineering at Zenly for 7 years leading eng to millions of users and an acquisition by Snap.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

04:17 How Will Inference Change and Evolve Over the Next 5 Years

09:17 Challenges and Innovations in AI Hardware

15:38 The Economics of AI Compute

18:01 Training vs. Inference: Infrastructure Needs

25:08 The Future of AI Chips and Market Dynamics

34:43 Nvidia's Market Position and Competitors

38:18 Challenges of Incremental Gains in the Market

39:12 The Zero Buy-In Strategy

39:34 Switching Between Compute Providers

40:40 The Importance of a Top-Down Strategy for Microsoft and Google

41:42 Microsoft's Strategy with AMD

45:50 Data Center Investments and Training

46:40 How to Succeed in AI: The Triangle of Products, Data, and Compute

48:25 Scaling Laws and Model Efficiency

49:52 Future of AI Models and Architectures

57:08 Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)

01:00:52 Why OpenAI's Position is Not as Strong as People Think

01:06:47 Challenges in AI Hardware Supply

20VC Exclusive: Mercor Raises $100M at a $2BN Valuation: Scaling to $70M in ARR in 24 Months | 9-9-6: 9AM-9PM - 6 Days Per Week: The Most Intense Culture in Silicon Valley | The Future of Programming, Models and Data with Adarsh Hiremath Feb 20, 2025

Show notes

Adarsh Hiremath is the Co-Founder and CTO @ Mercor, an AI recruitment platform and one of the fastest-growing companies in technology. They have scaled to $70M in ARR in just 24 months. They are famed for working 6 days per week, 9AM to 9PM. All of their founders are Thiel fellows, they are also the youngest unicorn founders ever with the fundraise announced today raising $100M led by Felicis at a $2BN valuation.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

04:36 How Debating Makes The Best Founders

06:05 Do People Treat You Differently When a Unicorn Founder

10:58 Scaling to $70M ARR in 24 Months

13:42 How Culture Breaks When Scaling So Fast

23:49 The Future of Foundation Models

24:05 OpenAI vs Anthropic

24:32 Data: Synthetic vs Human

27:10 The Future of Programming and AI

28:15 The Impact of AI Tools on Software Development

28:51 Why Software Will Become Commoditised

29:55 Network Effects and Marketplaces

33:13 Raising From Benchmark After a Helicopter Ride

37:30 Quickfire Round: Insights and Reflections

20VC: NVIDIA vs Groq: The Future of Training vs Inference | Meta, Google, and Microsoft's Data Center Investments: Who Wins | Data, Compute, Models: The Core Bottlenecks in AI & Where Value Will Distribute with Jonathan Ross, Founder @ Groq Feb 17, 2025

Show notes

Jonathan Ross is the Founder & CEO of Groq, the creator of the world's first Language Processing Unit (LPUTM). Prior to Groq, Jonathan began what became Google's Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) as a 20% project where he designed and implemented the core elements of the first-generation TPU chip. Jonathan next joined Google X's Rapid Eval Team, the initial stage of the famed "Moonshots Factory", where he devised and incubated new Bets (Units) for Google's parent company, Alphabet.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

04:20 Interview with Jonathan Ross Begins

04:59 Scaling Laws and AI Model Training

06:22 Synthetic Data and Model Efficiency

12:01 Inference vs. Training Costs: Why NVIDIA Loses Inference

17:06 The Future of AI Inference: Efficiency and Cost

18:15 Chip Supply and Scaling Concerns

20:57 Energy Efficiency in AI Computation

25:40 Why Most Dollars Into Datacenters Will Be Lost

31:05 Meta, Google, and Microsoft's Data Center Investments

41:11 Distribution of Value in the AI Economy

42:10 Stages of Startup Success

43:17 The AI Investment Bubble

45:00 The Keynesian Beauty Contest in VC

48:40 NVIDIA's Role in the AI Ecosystem

53:39 China's AI Strategy and Global Implications

57:51 Europe's Potential in the AI Revolution

01:10:14 Future Predictions and AI's Impact on Society

20VC: From Penniless Printing Shop Offices to Public Company and One of the Largest Entertainment Companies: The Story of LADbible | The Future of Content & Social Media | US vs Europe: Is Europe F****** with Solly Solomou Feb 14, 2025

Show notes

Founder and CEO of LADbible Group, Solly Solomou has built one of the largest and most engaged digital media entertainment companies in the world. Under his leadership, LADbible has grown to reach two-thirds of 18-34-year-olds in the UK, with a global audience of over 494 million followers, including 141 million in the US. The company's content now has a total reach of over 1 billion people worldwide.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

From Printer Shop Office to Ringing the IPO Bell:

How did Solly start LADbible with no money and no experience?
How did a moment with Kevin Hart and Ice Cube show Solly that he had something special with LADbible?
In the expansion of the business, what new products did not work? What did Solly learn from the failures of products?
Why did Solly always want to build the business without an external funding?
What are the top 3 pieces of advice Solly gives to young entrepreneurs starting a business today?

The Future of Content and Social Media:

How does Solly see wearables changing the future of media and social?
Does Solly agree that the friendship graph has been eradicated by interest graphs?
Does Solly think TikTok should be banned?
Why does Solly think TikTok Shop is the most interesting product in social today?

Europe vs US: Is Europe F******:

What are the single biggest differences between doing business in the US vs Europe?
Why did Solly decide to go public in London on The London Stock Exchange?
How tough is it being a public company in London?
How important are local liquidity markets if Europe is to regain competitiveness?
If Solly were advising Keir Starmer on how to stimulate growth in the UK, what would he say and advise?

20VC: Monzo: The Greatest Turnaround in Tech: From £40M Revenues, Layoffs, Downrounds and Low Employee NPS to $1BN in Revenue, Profitable and 10M Customers with TS Anil, CEO @ Monzo Feb 13, 2025

Show notes

TS Anil is the CEO @ Monzo, where he has been the mastermind behind the greatest turnaround in tech in the last 10 years. When TS took over at Monzo they had £40M in revenue, very little runway, had a 40% down round and had large layoffs and low employee NPS. Today they are at £1BN in revenue, profitable and the UK's largest digital bank with more than 10m customers.

From $40M Revenues to $1BN Revenues and Profitable:

1. What are the most profitable elements of Monzo's business today? How will that change in time?

2. What did TS do with Monzo that he wishes he had not done? What did he not do that he wishes he had done?

3. How does TS approach expansion? How will he win Europe against the competition of Revolut?

4. Why have no European fintechs won when expanding into the US? What do they do wrong?

5. How does TS think about the decision to go public? Will he go public in London?

6. How does TS respond to the notion that Monzo has a "work life balance" culture in the face of the fierce culture of Revolut?

7. What have been TS' biggest lessons from raising $1BN for Monzo from the largest institutions in the world? What was the easiest round? What was the hardest?

8. What three core traits does TS believe all great leaders need to have? If you do not have them, how can you develop them most efficiently?

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

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

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected