Accel

Miles Clements is a Partner @ Accel where he helps to lead their growth fund. At Accel, Miles has led or invested in Atlassian, Cursor, Linear, and more. AGENDA: 03:38 Where is True Alpha and Value in a World of AI 05:10 Why it is Total BS that Cursor is Dead 07:55 Why Cursor Were Not Wrong to Build Their Own Models 09:38 What is the Upside When Investing in Cursor at $27BN? 15:12 Do Sub $10BN Outcomes Even Matter to a Fund the Size of Accel? 17:07 Losing ServiceTitan: Investing Lesson Learned… 19:55 Missing Rippling: What We Learned 27:20 What is Accel's Win Rate 30:22 How VCs Approach Ownership Has Changed 35:09 Does Miles Feel Happier or Sadder to be an Anthropic Investor Post Pentagon Debacle 36:45 What Happens to Companies Like Miro and Snyk with High Prices to Live Upto? 38:05 Why it is a Great Time to Be Thoma Bravo and Vista 38:36 Why Founder-Led Companies Are Always Better 41:12 Why Would Any Founder Go Public Today 43:48 When is the Right Time to Take Chips Off The Table? 45:24 Should VC Firms Have Evergreen Funds and Be Responsible for Public Positions 50:28 You Can Pick Any VC to Join Accel, Who Does Miles Choose…

Miles Clements

Partner

Accel

AI investments hit $110 billion in 2024, and the funding landscape in 2025 is more competitive than ever. For early-stage startups, that means more money in the market but also more pressure to stand out. At TechCrunch Sessions: AI, Rebecca Bellan sat down with three experienced investors: Jill Chase, Partner at CapitalG; Kanu Gulati, Partner at Khosla Ventures; and Sara Ittelson, Partner at Accel. They broke down what they are really looking for when evaluating AI startups from seed through Series C. Their message to founders? Forget the perfect pitch. Focus on building trust, surviving the hype cycle, and being ready for copycats the moment you find product-market fit. Listen to the full episode of Equity to hear about: Why VCs say founders are over-indexing on pitch decks instead of relationships What it takes to go up against big incumbents without getting crushed Why consumer focus (and speed) still win, even in B2B AI How agents and automation are already reshaping the startup playbook Equity will be back Friday with our weekly news roundup, so stay tuned. Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday.  Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. We’d also like to thank TechCrunch’s audience development team. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll talk to you next time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jill Chase

Partner

CapitalG

Kanu Gulati

Partner

Khosla Ventures

Sara Ittelson

Partner

Accel

Wes and Scott talk with VC Dan Levine about how developers can raise venture capital, what investors look for in early-stage startups, the realities of bootstrapping vs. fundraising, and why great ideas often start as simple side projects. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 00:55 Dan’s background and career 03:10 Is it common for tech investors to come from a tech background? 04:40 How can developers raise money? 08:35 What investors look for 12:39 How much funding is enough? 15:41 Are founders working with multiple investors? 18:26 What can you use the money for? 22:49 How much influence do investors have in the business? 29:56 Brought to you by Sentry.io 29:56 How involved are VCs in the business? 34:22 How do you know a startup is in trouble—and what can you do about it? 38:56 How much of the company do investors own? 40:43 What’s the endgame for investors? 44:02 How do acqui-hires work? 46:29 Is the AI space a real opportunity or just hype? 53:22 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs Sick Picks Dan: Dandelion Chocolate Jules Pizza Shameless Plugs Dan: Linear Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Dan Levine

Partner

AccelAbstract Ventures

“It's a bit too early to say that the race is over,” said Philippe Botteri when asked about European startups’ AI progress. “I think we're just at the very early innings of this race.”  Botteri is a partner at early-stage investment firm Accel with over 13 years under his belt at the firm, leading investments in DocuSign, UiPath and more recently Snyk and Chainalysis. Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, host Rebecca Bellan caught up Botteri to dive deep into Accel’s Euroscape 2024 Report. Tapping into Botteri’s experience in Cloud, SaaS security, and enterprise sectors, the pair discuss AI's rising influence, its impact on software and cloud investments, and how European startups can compete with the US.  Listen to the full episode for more about: How AI is eating the software market, with AI and cloud funding predicted to hit $79.2 billion by the end of 2024. The challenges faced by traditional software companies as funding growth slows outside of AI. Why Europe’s strong talent pool gives it an edge in the AI race, even as startups on the continent struggle to compete with the ungodly amounts of money U.S. tech giants have. Increased M&A activity globally amid a slow IPO market. Why 2025 will be the year of the “agentic revolution” with AI significantly impacting software development and productivity. Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday.  Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Philippe Botteri

Partner

Accel

Discover the secrets to scaling a SaaS business with UiPath's CEO & Founder Daniel Dines, and Philippe Botteri, Partner at Accel. Learn 10 interesting lessons for driving a new category in SaaS to over a billion dollars in annual revenue and beyond. Sharing the learnings from the founding of UiPath in 2005 to its present-day success with over a billion dollars in revenue, watch to learn insights into how UiPath has achieved its monumental growth, and how you can apply these strategies to your own SaaS business. ***** Shipping projects doesn't have to be a mess. Notion combines project management with your docs, knowledge base, and AI. So you can stop jumping between tools, and stop paying too much for them too. Get Notion Projects for free at Notion.com/SAASTR. Vention provides technology leaders with the top engineering talent they need to accelerate their roadmap, innovate faster and more efficiently, and ultimately catapult their operation to new heights. Vention developers sync with clients' in-house teams, helping them get to market 30 percent faster and saving them more than $600,000 on average. Looking for the edge to outpace your competition? Vention is your partner. Learn more at ventionteams.com. ***** Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software. Subscribe for weekly updates: https://www.saastr.com/subscribeform Twitter: https://twitter.com/saastr LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2724976 Quora Group: https://www.quora.com/q/cloud Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaaStr/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saastr/ Our North American Event: https://bit.ly/2OXeAYh Our European Event: https://bit.ly/2OZTad8

Daniel Dines

Cofounder and CEO

UiPath

Philippe Botteri

Partner

Accel

SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin recently moderated a session with 3 of the best investing in SaaS: Doug Pepper, GP at Iconiq, Arun Mathew, GP at Accel, and Alex Kayyal, VP and head of all of Salesforce Ventures. The four deep-dive on the real state of venture capital today and into 2023. This podcast was recorded live during G2's digital reach event. Check out the rest of the sessions over at Reach.G2.com This episode is an excerpt from the session. Watch the full video: https://youtu.be/hTvNqr395nY Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software. Subscribe for weekly updates: https://www.saastr.com/subscribeform Twitter: https://twitter.com/saastr LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2724976 Quora Group: https://www.quora.com/q/cloud Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaaStr/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saastr/ Our North American Event: https://bit.ly/2OXeAYh Our European Event: https://bit.ly/2OZTad8

Doug Pepper

General Partner

ICONIQ GrowthICONIQ CapitalShasta Ventures

Arun Mathew

General Partner

Accel

Alex Kayyal

VP and Head of Salesforce Ventures

Salesforce Ventures

We sit down with Brian O’Malley of Forerunner Ventures to talk about where in the cycle we are right now for consumer investing. We touch on the macro environment (obviously!), but also how to navigate between and around the current generation of platform incumbents, and where the next breakthrough consumer technology companies might come from. And in true Acquired Playbook fashion we talk about the benefits of focusing on niches — and how on the internet they can expand ever bigger than you might initially imagine! Links: Acquired Qualcomm Live Show at Breakpoint 2022! The 2022 Acquired Survey! The Acquired Merch Store The Acquired Slack Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Brian O'Malley

Partner

AccelForerunner Ventures

Although core to the European economy, accounting for around 11M companies and 99.8% of businesses in Western Europe, the SMB market has largely been underserved by software providers. Now, companies like PayFit are on a mission to meet this underserved audience's needs. With its unique and flexible cloud architecture, PayFit has already met the payroll and HR management demands of 7,000+ SMBs across four countries and grown to 900+ employees. Getting to this point from just 40 team members and 200 customers back in 2017 takes more than just grit, vision and a great product. It takes a solid GTM strategy focused on launching and growing the company's competitive advantage in each core market, an in-depth knowledge of your target audience and the ability to hire exceptional team members along the way. In this session, Philippe Botteri, Partner at Accel, and Firmin Zocchetto, co-founder and CEO at PayFit, discuss the seven secrets behind the company's SMB GTM strategy. Full video: https://youtu.be/HZDBNg8JQ8w Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software. Subscribe for weekly updates: https://www.saastr.com/subscribeform Twitter: https://twitter.com/saastr LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2724976 Quora Group: https://www.quora.com/q/cloud Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaaStr/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saastr/ Our North American Event: https://bit.ly/2OXeAYh Our European Event: https://bit.ly/2OZTad8

Firmin Zocchetto

Co-Founder and CEO

PayFit

Philippe Botteri

Partner

Accel

Sonali De Rycker is a Partner @ Accel, one of the leading firms of the last 3 decades with a portfolio that includes the likes of UiPath, Miro, Spotify, and many more incredible companies. As for Sonali, Sonali led Accel's investments in Avito (acquired by Naspers), Spotify (NYSE: SPOT), Primer, Monzo, Letgo (acquired by Naspers), Kry/Livi, Soldo, Hopin, and Sennder. Prior to Accel, Sonali was with Atlas Venture (now Accomplice). She also previously served on the board of Match.com (NASDAQ:MTCH). In Today's Episode with Sonali De Rycker You Will Learn: 1.) From Small Town in India To Leading Venture Capitalist: How Sonali made her way from a small town in India to becoming one of the most prominent VCs of the last decade? What were some of Sonali's biggest lessons from seeing the booms and busts of 2000 and 2008? What climate does the crash today resemble more? Why so? How does Sonali advise younger investors who have not lived through a downturn? What should their investor psychology be right now? 2.) Firm Building: Accel: What are the most challenging and non-obvious elements of building a firm today? What have been some of the biggest mistakes Accel has made when adding to the team? What qualities do Sonali and Accel specifically look for when interviewing candidates to join the team? What specific questions tease out whether the candidate has these traits? What specific structures does Accel have in place to encourage the team to work together as one cohesive unit? How do they use bonuses as a team incentive? 3.) Sonali: The Investor: How has Sonali's investing style changed over the years? What moments caused these changes to happen? What are some of the biggest mistakes Sonali has made in her investing career? What did she learn from them? On the flip side, from winners such as Spotify and Supercell, what did Sonali learn from her biggest winners? Why does Sonali believe that market sizing and outcome scenario planning is useless and will lead you to make the wrong decision? 4.) Decision-Making and Risk: What does Sonali mean when she speaks of Type 1 and Type 2 decisions? How should one's decision-making process change according to which type of decision it is? What are the two biggest risks startups are facing today? Does Sonali believe that seed-stage companies will take money from crossover funds? What does Sonali do when she loses faith in the founder? How does she communicate that to them in the right way? What have been some of her biggest lessons here? What have been some of Sonali's biggest lessons when it comes to reserves management? How does Sonali determine when to double down vs reserve cash? Items Mentioned in Today's Episode with Sonali De Rycker: Sonali's Favourite Book: A Fine Balance Sonali's Most Recent Investment: BeReal

Sonali De Rycker

Partner

Accel

Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz founded Accel in 1983. Under their leadership, they have built Accel into one of the most prominent venture firms of the last 4 decades. Starting with Arthur, as the lead investor, Arthur has helped management teams develop companies into market-defining leaders over an incredible four decades. Prior to co-founding Accel, Arthur was a General Partner of Adler & Company with his career in venture starting at Citicorp Venture Capital. As for Jim, Jim has been the lead director of more than 50 successful companies. He was instrumental as a founder/mentor of Accel London and in the founding of Meritech Capital. Before Accel, Jim was the founding general partner of Adler & Company, which he started with Fred Adler in 1978 after his tenure as a vice president of Citicorp Venture Capital. In Today's Episode with Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz You Will Learn: 1.) How Arthur and Jim made their first entry into the world of venture capital in the 70's? What was the founding moment for them with Accel? Where did the first discussion happen? Did they align on strategy? Why did they decide to name the firm Accel? 2.) What did the venture ecosystem look like when Arthur and Jim founded Accel in 1983? Why does Arthur believe the specialist always beats the generalist? What was the hardest Accel fund to raise? Why was it the hardest to raise? When did the Accel brand hit an inflection point and fundraising became easier? Where do Arthur and Jim disagree on this? 3.) How do Jim and Arthur feel about the current frothiness of the venture market? Why does Jim believe we are entering a market correction? How do they feel about the inflation of asset value? Through what lens is now the same vs different to 1999/2000? What have been their biggest lessons from experiencing 5 macro booms and busts? 4.) How did Jim and Arthur think about when to expand with a new Accel product? What did Accel do specifically to make the expansion to London and India so successful? What is the key to doing generational transition well? Where do many go wrong here? Do Jim and Arthur agree with Doug Leone, "when you lose seed, you become private equity"? 5.) How do Jim and Arthur think about partner selection within the firm? How have they structured decision-making to ensure politics do not get introduced? How does one create a decision-making framework of accountability without fear to take big risks? What do Arthur and Jim mean when they speak of "the prepared mind"? How does it help them think and operate better?

Arthur Patterson

Co-Founder

Accel

Jim Swartz

Co-Founder

Accel

Sameer Gandhi is a Partner @ Accel, one of the leading venture firms of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Facebook, Dropbox, Atlassian, Hopin, Spotify and more. As for Sameer, he led investments in Crowdstrike, Dropbox, Flipkart, Spotify and more. Prior to Accel, Sameer spent close to 10 years as a Partner @ Sequoia. In Today's Episode with Sameer Gandhi You Will Learn: 1.) How Sameer first came to meet George, Crowdstrike Founder and CEO? How did a 30-minute meeting turn into a 2-hour discussion leading to Accel's investment? 2.)The Market: How did Sameer analyze and break down the market at the time of the investment? What hypothesis did he have on market evolution going in? What elements went as thought? In what way did the market evolve in a way Sameer did not expect? How does Sameer think through market timing today? Through what approach does Sameer assess market sizing today? 3.) Financing: How did Sameer build the confidence to lead multiple rounds of financing, one after the other? How did Sameer build the trust and strength of relationship with George to win each round? Why did Sameer advise George to "go shop his term sheet"? What was the rationale? How does Sameer advise founders on taking pre-emptive rounds today? 4.) Execution: What specifically allowed Crowdstrike to move so fast in the early days? Does Sameer believe that speed of execution is the strongest moat a company can have? How does Sameer advise companies today on services revenue? In what shape did this look with Crowdstrike in the early days? What is a healthy proportion of services to product revenue? 5.) The Team: How did George evolve and develop as a leader in the decade Sameer worked with him? What were some of the core inflection points that caused those changes? Who are some of the unsung heroes behind the scenes who moved the needle for Crowdstrike? What is Sameer's favorite memory from working with the company? Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode with Sameer Gandi Go to thetwentyminutevc.com to download the original Crowdstrike Investment Memo.

Sameer Gandhi

Partner

Accel

Dan Levine is a Partner @ Accel, one of the world's leading venture firms with a portfolio including the likes of Facebook, Slack, Qualtrics, UiPath and Deliveroo. As for Daniel, he actually joined Accel in 2010 before leaving to join Dropbox. At Dropbox, he worked on the platform team helping open the platform to third-party developers and launched and managed many of the company's developer-facing initiatives. Following Dropbox, he rejoined Accel and has led investments in Scale.ai, Mux, Vercel and Sentry to name a few. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Dan made his way into the world of venture with Accel? How that led to his joining Dropbox? What led to his re-joining Accel 3 years later? 2.) How does Dan assess the current state of the seed and Series A landscape? How does Dan analyse the rise of pre-emptive rounds? How does Dan determine when to lean in and pre-empt vs when not to? What does Dan think is the biggest myth about raising a Series A? 3.) How does Dan analyse multi-stage funds so actively entering seed? What has Accel's seed portfolio data shown? How many went on to raise a Series A? How many did Accel lead? How many companies died? What is the biggest problem this portfolio presents? 4.) How does Dan analyse the trio of people, product and market? How does Dan approach market sizing? How does Dan approach the risk associated with market timing? What risk is he willing to take? What is he not? When can one stretch on market? When is it a stretch too far? 5.) How does Dan evaluate the rise of solo capitalists? What does he see as the core pros and cons of the model? What are the pros and cons of the partnership model like Accel has? How does Dan evaluate the rise of investor personal brands today? What worries him? Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode Dan's Favourite Book: Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (Vintage) Dan's Most Recent Investment: Altinity As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Dan Levine

Partner

AccelAbstract Ventures

Fred Destin is a Founding Partner @ Stride.VC, one of Europe's newest and largest early-stage seed firms. Prior to co-founding Stride, Fred was a General Partner @ Accel where he was the lead investor and board member at Deliveroo, Pillpack (acq. AMZN for $1BN) and Carwow. Prior to Accel, he was a partner at Atlas Venture (now Accomplice) where he invested in and served on the board of Pillpack, Zoopla (IPO), Secret Escapes, Integral Ad Science (partial exit to Vista at $850M) and TheCurrencyCloud to name a few. Fun fact, his portfolio has a total enterprise value of more than $10BN and he generated in excess of $700M in exit value to investors. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Fred make his way into the world of venture and come to co-found one of Europe's newest and largest seed funds in Stride.VC? 2.) If you look to Twitter, all VCs are "open for business", does Fred really believe the market is still open for business? How will deal volume be affected? How bad does Fred think this could get? How does this downturn compare to that of the dot-com and 2008? 3.) Why did Stride decide to take the decision to pause on investing at this moment in time? How does Fred respond to the suggestion of better pricing and less competition at this time? How does Fred believe venture investors view of risk evolves at this time? What is the first to change? 4.) With many new funds deploying their first fund in 18 months, does Fred think we will see a gravyard of new fund managers out of cash and with cash hungry portfolios? What advice does Fred give to newer managers of other elements they have to be minfdul/aware of? 5.) How does Fred think about the right way for managers to communicate with their LPs at this time? What has Stride done that has worked? Does Fred believe we will see many LPs defaulting on their initial commitments? How does Fred think emerging managers can navigate this? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Fred's Fave Movie: Mulholland Drive Fred's Most Recent Investment: Collective Benefits As always you can follow Harry, Fred and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Fred Destin

Founding Partner

Stride VCAccel

Fred Destin is a Founding Partner @ Stride.VC, one of Europe's newest seed funds with a portfolio including the likes of Cazoo and Forward Health. Over his 17 year career in venture, Fred has established himself as one of Europe's leading VCs with the exit value of 3 of his portfolio companies alone last year totalling more than $4.5Bn with PillPack's $1Bn sale to Amazon, Zoopla to Silverlake for $3Bn and Integral Ad Science to Vista for $850m. Fred has also led investments as a General Partner @ Accel in Deliveroo, the world leader of food on demand and Carwow, the number 1 for new car sales in the UK. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Fred made his way into the world of venture and early stage? What was behind his decision to leave Accel to found Stride with Harry? 2.) Why does Fred think many today misunderstand "risk" in venture? How does that apply across the portfolio? Does Fred agree with Brian Singerman, "venture is a game of upside maximisation"? What risks does Fred define as acceptable vs non-acceptable risks? How does Fred really look to strength test the quality and depth of a founder pre-investment? What are the benefits of going through conflict early? 3.) How does Fred think about price sensitivity? What are the core questions a VC can ask when considering the pricing of an opportunity? How does Fred think about reserve allocation? How does Fred analogize this to the best traders? To what extent does TAM play a dominant role in Fred's evaluation? What does Fred mean when he says "we have to remember, we are the ones that get picked also"? 4.) How does Fred think about and assess innovation within venture? How does Fred perceive the role of data to impact venture over the coming years? Why does Fred believe it is exaggerated that data will disrupt the early stage in the coming years? Where would Fred like to see further innovation in the mechanics of venture? 5.) What does Fred believes separates the good from the great when it comes to board members? How can board members create an environment where the entrepreneur feels they can say all that is wrong? Where do many board members go wrong? Why are board members so wrong to bash a founder for missing their numbers? Why does Fred believe that plans are fiction? WHy is the framework of the plan what really matters? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Fred's Fave Book: Man's Search for Meaning As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Fred on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Are you thinking about life insurance in the new year? Ladder. Is the smart and easy way to get term life insurance online. With Ladder there are no commissioned agents and no policy fees — you can be done in minutes. Even better, coverage can start today, if you qualify, and you can cancel anytime. Ladder is licensed and backed by trusted partners, with billions in coverage. Visit ladderlife.com to apply and get an instant decision on fully underwritten term life insurance, and check life insurance off your list TODAY. Ready for tax season? Wishing you'd kept a closer eye on your books this year? Set yourself up for success in 2019 with Pilot. Pilot is a bookkeeping company focused on the needs of startups. Their team of SF-based bookkeepers are assisted by engineers to automate the most error-prone parts of bookkeeping, so you know you're getting an accurate report every month. Plus, Pilot does accrual basis bookkeeping in Quickbooks Online, so you're never locked into a proprietary platform. Learn more and sign up here. Don't wait – the first 100 members of the Twenty Minute VC community get 20% off Pilot Core for six months.

Fred Destin

Founding Partner

Stride VCAccel

Jake Flomenberg is a Partner @ Accel, one of the top performing venture funds of the last decade with investments in the likes of Dropbox, Slack, Facebook, Deliveroo and Atlassian, just to name a few. As for Jake, at Accel he specializes on all things Big Data and has led investments in the likes of Demisto, Origami Logic, Sumo Logic, Trifacta, and Zoomdata. Prior to Accel, Jake was director of product management at Splunk, where he was responsible for the product's user interface and big data strategy. Before that, he worked at Cloudera where he helped the founding team tackle a broad array of sales, marketing and product issues. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Jake made the transition from the world of operations with Cloudera and Splunk to the other side of the table, as Partner at Accel? 2.) Why does Jake believe a large element of his role is "how to make AI not BS"? How does he approach this from the three-legged stool of machine learning, data and workflow? How do each subsequently rank? 3.) To what extent is Jake concerned by the data incumbency advantages that are present in the market with Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple (GAFA)? Where is the room for real opportunity and innovation? When should a startup be concerned about GAFA entering? 4.) How does Jake respond to Aaron Van Devender's suggestion that the value of large datasets is overplayed? Where are the inflection points in dataset value? How does David compare the value of initial data vs derivative data and the subsequent value? 5.) How does Jake assess the current state of the cybersecurity market? Is this increased investment period sustainable or due to more macro attention and events? Where does Jake feel the real opportunity is in cyber today? Where is it overplayed? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Jake's Fave Book: Ready Player One Jake's Fave Blog: The Morning Paper (Harry's Favourite also) Jake's Most Recent Investment: Radar As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Jake on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Namely is the all-in-one HR, payroll, and benefits platform your employees will love to use. It's as intuitive as social media, but powerful enough to support the complexity of today's workforce. Namely's mission is to help mid-sized companies build a better workplace. See how Namely can transform your workplace at www.Namely.com. Eero is the world's best-reviewed wifi. A system of eero and eero Beacons wirelessly connects to blanket your home in fast, reliable WiFi, so despite the increased number of devices with Christmas coming, you'll still be able to get powerful mesh WiFi in every nook and cranny of your home, backyard included. No more dead spots, slow spots, drop-offs, or buffering — right out of the box. Eero is only available in the US and Canada and you can check it out here!

Jake Flomenberg

Partner

Accel

Rich Wong is a General Partner @ Accel, one of the world's leading venture funds with investments in the likes of Dropbox, Slack, Facebook, Deliveroo and Atlassian, just to name a few. As for Rich, Rich has led investments in the likes of Rovio (IPO), SwiftKey, AdMob, MoPub and more incredible companies. Rich also sits on the boards of the likes of Checkr, Osmo, Rovio and Atlassian where he was first outside Board member and lead investor. Prior to joining Accel, Rich served as SVP of products for mobile pioneer, Openwave Systems and CMO of Covad Communications. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Rich made his way into the world of VC with Accel from OpenWave and having been active in the mobile and broadband ecosystems? 2.) What does Rich mean when he states the rise of the "Globalisation of VC"? How does Accel both find and win deals in locations such as Australia, Finland? How do the founder's mentalities differ to Bay area founder mentality? 3.) How does Rich think about price sensitivity when assessing opportunities? What would be considered a good return multiple when investing from the early stage fund? How does this differ from the growth fund? 4.) What is the internal structure of investment decision making at Accel? How does Rich analyze reserve allocation? How does initial to reserve decision-making differ? How does the Accel partnership determine the 10% of portfolio that are "winners"? 5.) Question from Manu Kumar @ K9: How does Rich decide when is the right time for a company to scale? What is the balance of not too early and not too late? How should unit economics play a role in this decision? What characteristic must be inherent within multiple functions of the business, pre-scaling? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Rich's Fave Book: The Big Short Rich's Fave Blog: Wolf Street Rich's Most Recent Investment: Instabug As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Rich on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Namely is the all-in-one HR, payroll, and benefits platform your employees will love to use. It's as intuitive as social media, but powerful enough to support the complexity of today's workforce. Namely's mission is to help mid-sized companies build a better workplace. See how Namely can transform your workplace at www.Namely.com. Eero is the world's best-reviewed wifi. A system of eero and eero Beacons wirelessly connects to blanket your home in fast, reliable WiFi, so despite the increased number of devices with Christmas coming, you'll still be able to get powerful mesh WiFi in every nook and cranny of your home, backyard included. No more dead spots, slow spots, drop-offs, or buffering — right out of the box. Eero is only available in the US and Canada and you can check it out here!

Rich Wong

General Partner

Accel

Steve Loughlin is a Partner @ Accel in San Francisco, one of the leading funds with prior investments in the likes of Facebook, Dropbox, Atlassian, Slack and many more incredible companies. Prior to Accel, Steve was the CEO and co-founder of RelateIQ, later named SalesforceIQ following the acquisition of the company by Salesforce in 2014 for $390 million. Steve was also president and CEO of Affinity Circles, a professional social network that connected more than 18 million professionals. Steve has also advised or invested in the likes of Palantir Technologies, Addepar, and Roam Analytics. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: How Steve made his way into the world of SaaS with the founding of RelateIQ and then came to be a Partner at Accel on the other side of the table? Why does Steve believe the hardest balance a founder has to consider is the balance between building for the future and building for the present? How can this short to long term dichotomy be considered effectively by the team? RelateIQ was early to the AI/ML landscape, what does Steve think they did so right with RelateIQ? Does Steve agree that for an enterprise ML play to be interesting it must fundamentally change the go to market strategy? What were the key learnings from working so closely with Marc Benioff on the Salesforce exec team? What is it about the internal structure and operations of Salesforce that make it the massively profitable behemoth that it is today? Having been a founder himself and now a VC, how does Steve look to help founders specifically? Where has Steve found that early stage founders need the most help? Where do VCs proclaim to help the most but really do not at all? 60 Second SaaStr What is the worst advice Steve often hears being given? What is something that Steve has changed his mind radically on over the last few years? What is Steve's favourite SaaS reading material? What does Steve know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning? If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Steve Loughlin

Steve Loughlin

Partner

Accel

Brian O'Malley is a Partner @ Accel Partners, where he spearheads Accel's work with next-generation marketplaces and consumer-focused companies. He led the firm's investments in Amino, Gametime, HotelTonight and Luma, as well as disruptive software-as-a-services businesses Duetto and Narvar. Brian joined Accel from Battery Ventures, where as a general partner he led investments in companies like Dollar Shave Club, BazaarVoice (public), Coupa, Skullcandy (public) and TradeKing (acquired by Ally). Prior to Battery, Brian led sales efforts and built some of the first web service-based API integrations for Bowstreet, Inc. (acquired by IBM). In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Brian make his way into one of the world's leading VC firms? What were Brian's biggest takeaways from being in the trenches during the bust of the dot com bubble? 2.) What is the macro economic view to value compression? How should startups being approaching and dealing with this? 3.) How can startups maintain growth as the priority whilst maintaining investor expectations on burn rates? What is Brian's approach to the growth vs retention theory? 4.) What retention metrics would Accel look for indifferent products? How does this vary from category to category? What are the commonalities Brian has seen in products that have insane retentive ability?? 5.) Where does Brian stand on market size and the potential for market transition down the line? Does the market even need to be there today for it to be investable today? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Brian's Fave Book: Zero To One By Peter Thiel Brian's Most Recent Investment: Luma: Fast, Reliable Wifi As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Brian 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! The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena, design to keep you cool. All Leesa mattresses are 100% US or UK made and for every 10 mattresses they sell, they donate one to a shelter. Go to Leesa.com/VC and enter the promo code VC75 to get $75 off!

Brian O'Malley

Partner

AccelForerunner Ventures

James Cameron is an early stage investor at Accel where he focuses on enterprise software, security, fintech and marketplace businesses. Prior to joining Accel, he founded and ran BipSync, a SaaS-based research platform for investment management. James also spent time on the tech banking team at Morgan Stanley and as a corporate lawyer at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London, Shanghai and Hong Kong. A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How James made his way into the world of startups and investing? 2.) How does James go about finding the needles in the haystack in the sea of amazing startups? Do James use data to find great companies? Do you think this will be a continuing trend, in terms of algorithmic deal sourcing? 3.) What cool stuff has James been seeing in the enterprise software and security sector? Does James think there are any underhyped or overhyped segments of these markets? 4.) One very dominant eco system for tech in general but specifically security is Israel, how do the UK and Israeli ecosystems differ? Is there anything we can do in the UK to harness the spirit encapsulated by the Israeli ecosystem? 5.) What are the catalysts or drivers of these communities’ growth? Do you agree with Marc Andreesen in saying we shouldn't think about building "The Silicon Valley of X" because the components that make up SV aren't repeatable and areas should instead specialize on specific verticals, like bitcoin or security. What do you think about that concept? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: James' Fave Book: Crossing The Chasm James' Fave Blog or Newsletter: Adrian Colyer: The Morning Paper James' Most Recent Investment: Doctolib As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and James 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!

James Cameron

Partner

Accel

Fred Destin is General Partner at Accel in London where he focuses on consumer and software investments. He is the lead investor and board member at Deliveroo, Pillpack (featured in ep: 89 with Eric Paley) and KNC. Prior to Accel, he was a partner at Atlas Venture where he worked with with companies like Zoopla (public), Secret Escapes, Integral Ad Science, Dailymotion (acquired by Orange), PriceMinister (acquired by Rakuten) and others. A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here! Click To Play In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Fred made his way into the world of startups and investing? 2.) What is it like investing in rocketships like Deliveroo and PillPack? 3.) What are the reasons most startups fail at the seed stage? What are the most common reasons that founders get fired? 4.) Why does Fred believe raising a Series B so tough? Is it the embodiment of the funding barbell? 5.) What are Fred's thoughts on VC founder alignment? Why does Fred deliberately cause tension between a founder prior to making an investment? In what form does this take? 6.) When I asked Fred for topics he was interested in, he gave me a list and one of them, I have never had suggested before and it is ‘Why are VC’s so schizo’? What does Fred mean? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Fred's Fave Book: Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master & Margarita Fred's Fave Blog or Newsletter: The Atlantic, Tech.eu Fred's Most Recent Investment: Deliveroo As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Fred 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!

Fred Destin

Founding Partner

Stride VCAccel

Michael Treskow is a VC @ Accel Partners, one of the world's most successful venture firms having funded the likes of Facebook, Dropbox, Spotify, Etsy and many more. At Accel, Michael is responsible for the firm’s investments in SpaceApe, a mobile games developer, and GoCardless, an online direct debt provider. Michael was also instrumental in Accel's investments and ongoing work with Funding Circle, Packlink, Qubit, Semmle, Trufa and WorldRemit. Prior to Accel, Michael focused on early-stage investments in technology companies at Warburg Pincus in San Francisco, invested in publicly traded technology companies at Highside Capital, and helped advise technology companies as part of Morgan Stanley's investment banking team in New York. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Michael made his way into the VC industry? Do you think it is very important for VCs to have entrepreneurial experience? 2.) How does Michael compare the investing environments between London and SF? What was his biggest takeaway from Warburg Pincus in SF? 3.) Accel is stage agnostic, why is that? What size market attracts Michael? How can Michael tell whether founders have the ability to exploit the market? 4.) What Michael believes are his key value adds? Have these changed over time? 5.) We often hear startups being described as ‘uber for’, ‘tinder for’. Do VCs like this simplification of business? How else would Michael suggest a complex concept can be broken down into something easily digestible? 6.) Does Michael still believe there is room for improvement in the consumerisation of enterprise software? Does Emergence Capital's pivot signal a turning tide? Items Mentioned In Todays Episode: Michael's Fave Book: The Innovator's Dilemma, Crossing The Chasm Michael Productivity Tools: Wunderlist Michael's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Dan Primack, Term Sheet Michael' Most Recent Investment: CartoDB As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Michael 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!

Michael Treskow

Venture Capitalist

Accel