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

Latest Episodes:

20VC: Bending Spoons: The Most Untold Success Story in Startups: Lessons Scaling to 500M Downloads, $360M in Reported 2023 Sales and a $2.55BN Valuation... Bootstrapped with Luca Ferrari, Co-Founder and CEO @ Bending Spoons Mar 15, 2024

Show notes

Luca Ferrari is Co-Founder and CEO of Bending Spoons, one of the most incredible but untold success stories in startups. Luca has scaled Bending Spoons to 100M monthly active users, $380M in sales in 2023 and aiming to reach $500M in EBITDA by the end of 2026. The company's products include Evernote, Meetup, Remini, and Splice and their products have now been downloaded more than 500M times.

In Today's Episode with Luca Ferrari We Discuss:

From McKinsey Associate to $2BN Founder

What was Luca like as a child? How would his parents have described him?
Why did Luca share his McKinsey salary with his co-founders?
What were Luca's biggest lessons from his failed startup?

Bootstrapping Bending Spoons

Why did Luca decide to bootstrap Bending Spoons?
What does Luca think about the EU vs. US startup environment?
Why did Luca kill a $7M project? What were his lessons?
How did Luca pick his investors?

How to Find the Best Talent

What are the 3 key traits Luca looks for when picking the best talent?
Why does Luca think traditional interview strategies do not work?
What tests does Luca conduct for each candidate?
What were Luca's biggest hiring mistakes?

Mastering Acquisition & Growth

How does Luca determine which products to acquire? How does he identify signals?
How does Luca approach pricing assets? How does he win every bid?
What are Luca's biggest lessons from acquiring Evernote?
What key lessons on risk management does Luca wish he'd known 10 years ago?
What are Luca's biggest challenges on user acquisition?

20Growth: Top Five Lessons from Leading Analytics at Facebook and Data Science at Sequoia Capital, The Two Skills Required to do Analytics Well, The Three Types of Execs within Companies and When and How to Hire for Growth with Chandra Narayanan Mar 13, 2024

Show notes

Chandra Narayanan is one of the growth and analytics OGs having spent 7 years at Facebook leading analytics for the Facebook App and for Instagram. After Facebook, Chandra became Chief Data Scientist @ Sequoia Capital, helping Sequoia, find, select and help the best entrepreneurs in the world. Today, Chandra is the Founder & CEO @ Sundial, building products to help builders make meaningful use of data to fulfill *their* mission.

In Today's Episode with Chandra Narayanan

1. From Working on the Weather to Leading Analytics at Facebook:

How did Chandra make his way from analyzing weather patterns to leading analytics for Facebook?
What does Chandra know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career in growth?
How did one piece of advice from his manager at Paypal change Chandra's mind forever on "quitting" and when to "quit"?

2. Growth and Analytics 101:

What does growth mean to Chandra? What is it? What is it not?
When is the right time to hire a growth team/person?
What is the right profile for the first growth hires?

3. How to Hire the Best Growth Teams in the World:

What are the must-ask questions when hiring for growth?
How does Chandra use case studies to determine the quality of a candidate?
What does Chandra believe are the four main reasons people go to work?
What are the three different types of execs in tech? How do you know when you need each one?

4. Lessons from Leading Analytics at Facebook and Sequoia:

What are 1-2 of Chandra's biggest takeaways from leading analytics at Facebook?
What does Chandra believe are the two core skills needed to do analytics well?
How can you easily test if someone is good at analytics?
How did being Chief Data Scientist @ Sequoia change Chandra's perspective on growth?

20VC: The Future of TikTok; Is it a Danger to US National Security| Why the "Woke Mind Virus" is a "Post-Modern Religion" and Is it Too Late to Reverse | Why the Education System is Broken | Investing Lessons from Wish, Palantir and Lady Gaga | Joe Lonsda Mar 11, 2024

Show notes

Joe Lonsdale is the Founder and Managing Partner at 8VC, an early-stage venture capital firm managing over $6 billion in capital. In 2003, he founded Palantir Technologies. Since then, he has founded over a dozen companies, including Addepar, a wealth management platform helping investors manage over $5 trillion, and OpenGov, recently sold for $1.8BN.

In Today's Episode with Joe Lonsdale We Discuss:

The Making of a Multi-Unicorn Founder:

What was Joe like as a child? How would his parents and teachers have described him?
What does Joe know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career?
How does Joe view the importance of luck and skill in success?

America's New Dawn: Navigating Frontiers and Accountability

What did Joe mean by describing America as a "frontier nation"?
How does Joe contrast America's frontiers with Europe's social safety nets?
How does Joe propose restoring America using the "scalpel over the sledgehammer" approach?
How can America introduce accountability to non-profit institutions? What role do for-profit prisons play?

Woke Mind Virus

Why does Joe consider the Woke Mind Virus a "Bad Postmodern Religion"?
Why does Joe see Elon Musk as a key figure in challenging "woke minds"?
Why does Joe believe the education system is a core problem? What needs to change?
Is it too late to reverse the current state of "woke mind virus"?

TikTok, China, Israel:

What does Joe believe is the right solution for TikTok's ownership?
To what extent is TikTok a danger to American national security?
What does Joe predict will happen to China from here? What needs to change?
How does Joe predict the next 24 months for the conflict in Israel and Gaza?

Investing Lessons: Wish, Palantir and more

What are Joe's biggest takeaways from the failing of Wish?
What did Joe learn from the failed project with Lady Gaga?
How does Joe reflect on when is the right time to sell?
How does Joe reflect on his own relationship to money?

20Sales: Outbound Sales is Dead Today, Why Demand Generation Will Move Back Under Marketing, "Wisdom" that Everyone Needs to Unlearn About Sales & Why You Should Never Hire Someone You Do Not Know in Your First Five Hires with Brendon Cassidy Mar 08, 2024

Show notes

Brendon Cassidy is one of the OG of enterprise sales of the last decade, having advised the likes of Gong.io, Pipedrive, Showpad. Previously Brendon was first Head of Sales at LinkedIn and VP of Sales at Talkdesk.

In Today's Episode with Brendon Cassidy We Discuss:

1. From Recruiter to Sales OG and Linkedin's First Head of Sales:

How did recruiting prepare Brendon for a career in sales?
What impact did the dot-com bubble burst have on his early career?
What does Brendon know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career in sales?

2. The Sales Playbook and Hiring The Team:

How does Brendon define the "sales playbook"?
Should the founder be the one to create and execute V1 of the playbook?
Should the first sales hire be a rep or a sales leader?
When is the right time to make that all-important first sales hire?

3. Why Discovery and Outbound Are Broken Today:

Why does Brendon feel discovery is useless in today's sales process?
Why does Brendon believe outbound will move under the marketing function?
How does AI change the world of outbound sales?
Why will no great sales leaders join a company that doesn't have an inbound machine?

4. How to Master Onboarding and Increase Sales Performance:

What is the right way to onboard new sales reps?
How quickly do you know if a sales rep is not good? What are the signs?
What is the right way to measure the effectiveness of sales teams today?
What are the biggest mistakes founders make in onboarding sales teams?

20VC: 27 Years of Investing Lessons on Picking Founders, Price Discipline, Reserves and Selling Positions | Can Seed Investors Compete with Multi-Stage Venture Firms | Why Returns Will Not Worsen Moving Forward with Peter Wagner, Founder @ Wing Mar 06, 2024

Show notes

Peter Wagner is a Founding Partner of Wing. Peter has led investments in dozens of early-stage companies including Snowflake, Gong, Pinecone, and many others which have gone on to complete IPO's or successful acquisitions. Prior to founding Wing, Peter spent an incredible 14 years at Accel, starting as an associate in 1996 and scaling to Managing Partner, before leaving to start Wing.

In Today's Episode with Peter Wagner We Discuss:

1. From Associate to Managing Partner to Founding Partner:

How did Peter first make his way into the world of venture as an associate at Accel?
How important does Peter believe it is to have early hits in your career as an investor?
What is the biggest mistake Peter sees young VCs make today?

2. The Venture Market: What Happens Now:

Does Peter agree with Roger Ehrenberg that venture returns will worsen moving forward?
How does Peter answer the question of how large asset management venture firms co-exist in a world of boutique seed players also?
Does Peter agree with Doug Leone that "venture has transitioned from a high-margin boutique business to a low-margin, commoditized industry?

3. Investing Lessons from 27 Years and Countless IPOs:

What have been some of Peter's single biggest investing lessons from 27 years in venture?
Why is Peter so skeptical of capital-intensive businesses? Will defense and climate startups suffer the same fate as clean tech did in the 2000s?
How does Peter reflect on his own relationship to price? When does it matter? When does it not?
What have been Peter's biggest lessons on when to sell positions vs when to hold?
What has been Peter's biggest miss? How did it impact his mindset?

4. Building a Firm from Nothing:

How was the fundraise process when leaving the Accel machine and raising with Wing?
What have been the single hardest elements of building Wing? What did he not expect?
What advice does Peter have for someone wanting to start their firm today?

20VC: Managing the Largest Sovereign Wealth Fund in the World: $1.55 Trn of Assets & Owning 1.5% of all Listed Companies with Nicolai Tangen, CEO @ Norges Bank Investment Management Mar 04, 2024

Show notes

Nicolai Tangen is the CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world with $1.55 Trn in assets, owning on average, 1.5% of every listed company. Tangen was previously Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer in AKO Capital, which he founded in 2005. Prior to this, Tangen was a partner and senior analyst at Egerton Capital and an equity analyst at Cazenove & Co.

In Today's Episode with Nicolai Tangen We Discuss:

From Religious Town in Norway to Leading the Largest Sovereign Wealth Fund:

What was Nicolai like as a child? How would his parents have described him?
Why does Nicolai think that loners have a greater chance/ability to make money?
What does Nicolai know now that he wishes he could tell a 20-year-old Nicolai?

The Top 10 Questions:

1. US Tech Firm Concentration: Is Nicolai concerned by the concentration of enterprise value in US tech firms? Have incumbents ever been as strong as they are today?

2. Impact of AI: What does Nicolai believe the impact of AI will be on society and productivity? What is his approach to investing in it moving forward?

3. Bitcoin: Why does Nicolai not want to hold Bitcoin? Why does he not understand it?

4. China: What would need to happen for China to be investable? How will the China situation play out?

5. Europe: Does Nicolai believe Europe is so far behind the US? Why? What can we do to improve?

6. Climate Change: How does Nicolai approach investing in climate? What works? What does not?

7. Sam Altman: Would Nicolai invest in Sam's new $7Trn project? What are some of Nicolai's biggest lessons from the time he has spent with Sam?

8. Investment Psychology: How does Nicolai retain a neutral investor psychology? How does he not get too up when doing well and too low when not doing well?

9. Investing Lessons: What are Nicolai's biggest investment hits and misses? What did he learn from them?

10. The Future: Why is Nicolai so optimistic about the future? What is he concerned about? How will we overcome our greatest challenges?

20VC: Are IPO Windows Shut? Has Regulation Killed the M&A Market? M&A OG Frank Quattrone on Lessons from 650 M&A Deals Worth Over $1TRN and Taking Amazon, Cisco and Netscape Public Mar 01, 2024

Show notes

Frank Quattrone is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Qatalyst and served as its CEO from the Firm's founding until January 2016. Over more than four decades, Frank and the teams he has led have advised on more than 600 mergers and acquisitions with an aggregate transaction value over $1 trillion and on more than 350 financings that raised over $65 billion for technology companies worldwide. Frank led the IPOs of Amazon.com, Cisco, Intuit, Netscape, among many others. He advised Apple on its $400 MM acquisition of NeXT (which led to Steve Jobs' return to Apple); Concur on its $8.3B sale to SAP; LinkedIn on its $28.1B sale to Microsoft; Qualtrics on its $8B sale to SAP and Twitch on its $1B sale to Amazon.com.

In Today's Episode with Frank Quattrone:

1. Has Regulation Killed M&A:

Why does Frank disagree that regulation has killed M&A?
What is the real reason why M&A is so down at present?
What would impact would a Trump administration have on the M&A environment?
What are some of Frank's biggest lessons from 600 prior transactions over dour decades of what happens when an M&A market shuts down?

2. When Will the IPO Window Re-Open:

Does Frank agree that the IPO window is currently closed for tech companies?
How does this IPO window compare to the dot com bust and 2007?
What is needed for the IPO window to re-open?
What is the timeline that Frank puts on the IPO window opening again?

3. M&A: How Do Companies Get Bought:

What is the process for a company to be bought?
What are the single biggest mistakes the seller makes in the process?
What do the best buyers and sellers do to get the best price?
Does Frank agree with the notion that "companies are bought and not sold"?

4. IPOing Amazing, Selling Linkedin and Qualtrics:

What is the story behind, Frank, Bill Gurley, Jeff Bezos and John Doerr pricing the Amazon IPO?
How did Linkedin come to be bought by Microsoft? What did that process look like?
How did Frank structure an event to ensure that Ryan @ Qualtrics and Bill McDermot @ SAP would meet and lead to the acquisiiton?

20VC: Startups Only Fail When Founders Stop Trying, Why the Two Weeks Following Our IPO Were the Worst of my Life & Why Tieing Your Identity to Your Company is the Most Dangerous Thing and How to Avoid It with Sami Inkinen, Co-Founder & CEO @ Virta Health Feb 28, 2024

Show notes

Sami Inkinen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Virta Health, the company reversing type 2 diabetes. Before Virta, Sami was the Co-Founder of Trulia, steering the company to a successful IPO and its eventual sale to Zillow Group. Outside of the boardroom, he launched Fat Chance Row, a daring venture to row 2,750 miles across the Pacific, unsupported with his wife, rowing 18 hours straight per day.

In Today's Episode with Sami Inkinen:

1. From Farm in Finland to IPO Founder: Relationship to Money

How did Sami's humble upbringing on a farm in Finland impact his early mindset and ambition?
How does Sami analyze his relationship to money today? How has it changed over time?
Why was the two weeks following Trulia's IPO the worst two weeks of his life?

2. The Secret to Marriage: Rowing 2,750 Miles Together:

What are some of the biggest lessons on marriage Sami has from spending 45 days rowing the Pacific with only his wife for company?
What was their single biggest argument over the 45 days? What did Sami learn from it?
Sami worked with his wife, what are the biggest pros and cons of working with your spouse? Would Sami recommend it?
What does Sami believe are the core fundamentals that underpin the best marriages?

3. The Secret to Parenting: The Regret of Delegation:

What is Sami's biggest regret when it comes to parenting?
How does Sami think about what it means to be a great father today? How has that changed?
How did Sami's relationship with his wife change when they had kids?

4. Relationship to Identity:

Why does Sami believe tieing your identity to the company, as a founder, is so dangerous?
How does Sami advise on creating multiple personas to prevent this?
Why does Sami believe that all the best founders are addicts to some extent?

20VC: What it Takes to be Top 1% in Private Equity | Why the Best Companies are Talent Systems | Three Traits Required to Succeed in Private Equity | Marriage, Fatherhood and Sports Team Owner, What it Takes to Do It All, with Justin Ishbia, Founder @ Sho Feb 26, 2024

Show notes

Justin is the Founder and Managing Partner of one of the nation's best-performing private equity firms, Shore Capital Partners ("Shore"). Since the firm's inception in 2009, Shore has grown from 4 to over 140 team members managing over $6 billion in AUM, representing 900+ acquired companies and more than 33,000 employees. Shore is also one of the most active private equity firm in the world by deal volume according to PitchBook while continuing to achieve return profiles that rank Shore among the top 1% of private equity firms. Justin is an avid sports fan/investor and is the Alternate Governor for the Phoenix Suns (NBA), Phoenix Mercury (WNBA) and Nashville SC (MLS).

In Today's Episode with Justin Ishbia:

1. From Law Student to Founding Shore Capital:

How did seeing Justin's father operate impact how he thinks about building Shore today?
What does he know now that he wishes he had known when he started Shore?
How important a role does luck play in success? How has his mindset changed on this?

2. How to Make Top 1% PE Returns:

Why does Justin see private equity done well like "using a flashlight in a dark room"?
What are the top 3 elements that Justin looks for in all acquisitions they make at Shore?
When did Justin think there was an advantage of scale/network effect but was proved wrong?
How does Justin think about downside protection and risk mitigation?
Why does Justin like to back and invest in first time founders more than any other type?

3. Building World-Class Investing Teams:

Why does Justin believe the best companies are talent systems?
How does Justin structure the talent system at Shore to ensure consistent incredible talent?
What does Justin believe are the three traits required to win in private equity?
What question does Justin ask all potential CEOs he hires for acquired companies?
What has Justin learned is the single clearest sign of the top .1% talent?

4. Justin Ishbia: The Family Man and Husband:

What metric does Justin use to track whether he is being a good and present father?
Is it possible to be top 1% and have balance with a wife and family?
What does "great fatherhood" mean to Justin? How has his thoughts on this changed?
How does Justin think about bringing kids up in a world of immense privilege and ensuring they remain ground and ambitious?

20Product: The Five Step Process to Hiring the Best Product People, The Four Core Skills the Best PMs Need to Have, The Two Product Documents that Drive World Class Product Teams & Why the Best PMs are Writers with Scott Williamson, Former CPO @ Gitlab Feb 21, 2024

Show notes

Scott Williamson was most recently Chief Product Officer for GitLab, where he led a team of 65 in Product Management, Product Operations, Growth, Pricing, and Corporate Development functions. Before GitLab, Scott was VP of Product for SendGrid for over six years, where helped lead the company to a successful IPO and $3B acquisition by Twilio.

In Today's Episode with Scott Williamson We Discuss:

1. From Sales to Product Leader:

Why does Scott believe sales is a great starting point for product people?
To what extent does an MBA help someone wanting to pursue a career in product management?
What does Scott know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career in product?

2. What, Who, When: How to Build a Product Team:

Is product management art or science? What is the ratio?
What are the four core roles of a product manager today?
When is the right time to hire your first PM?
What is the ideal profile for this first PM hire?
What are the single biggest mistakes founders make when hiring PMs?

3. Hiring the Best Product People:

What does Scott's hiring process look like for all new product hires?
How does Scott test for systematic thinking and problem-solving ability?
What questions does Scott always ask in interviews?
What are the best case studies to use to test a candidate's skill set?
How important is it for the candidate to have domain expertise in your product category?

4. The Best Product Teams are the Best Writers:

What are the two different types of documents that product teams must use?
How do you know when to use a one-pager vs a six-pager?
How does the discussion and planning cycle for the different documents differ?
How important is it for PMs to be great writers also?

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