Anchor

Mike Mignano is a General Partner at Union Square Ventures, one of the most iconic venture firms in the world, whose investments include Coinbase, Stripe, Etsy, Twilio, Cloudflare. Before joining USV, Mike was a Partner at Lightspeed, where he backed breakout AI companies including Granola and Suno. Prior to investing, he co-founded Anchor, acquired by Spotify. AGENDA: 00:00 Is Fear of Failure the Secret Weapon Behind Great Founders? 07:20 Why Leave Lightspeed for USV — and Is Thesis-Driven Venture Still Alive? 09:50 Is the Real AI Money Still in Infrastructure, or Are Apps Finally About to Explode? 13:00 Who Wins the AI Model War: OpenAI, Anthropic, Open Source, or the "Rebel Alliance"? 19:00 Are We About to Hand Our Entire Lives Over to AI Agents? 21:00 Can Anthropic Keep Growing Like This — or Will Token Spend Break the Model? 26:00 Can AI Routing Become a $50BN Company, or Is It Just a Commodity Pipe? 30:00 Will the AI Energy Crisis Create the Next Monster Venture Outcomes? 36:00 Can Startups Survive Microsoft, OpenAI, and the Brutal Power of Bundling? 45:00 Should VCs Ignore Price When Backing Generational Companies? 55:30 Is Traditional Media Dead — and Who Becomes the New Tech Kingmaker?

Mike Mignano

Co-Founder

AnchorLightspeed Venture PartnersUnion Square Ventures

Subscribe to my newsletter The Split for new episodes emailed every week: https://www.thespl.it/ Brought to you by Attio, the next generation of CRM: https://bit.ly/AttioThePeel Mike is currently a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Before Lightspeed, he spent five years building Anchor, which he sold to Spotify in 2020, and then led Spotify’s podcast, video, and live products for three years. It's probably safe to assume every podcast you listen to uses Mike’s product, and we go way back to the very beginning and talk through how the team at Anchor pulled it all off.Mike also shares his frameworks of “Doing the Dumb Thing” and "Super Goals," which are high-stakes, focusing goals with a clear and urgent time frame, open-ended method of achievement, and a single measure of success. Chapters: (00:00) Intro (4:22) Why AI makes consumer investing interesting again (8:05) Podcasting in the early 2010’s (14:03) The benefits and drawbacks of RSS (21:50) Building v1 “Instagram for audio” (25:53) Advice for building a close-knit community (29:28) Raising their first small round (31:38) Inside their splashy launch at SXSW (39:17) Why the first product failed, but allowed them to raise money to build Anchor (45:26) What makes a good product founder (47:39) Re-launching v2 a year later (53:51) What is a Super Goal (56:32) Finding Product Market Fit with months of runway left (59:02) Getting to a million podcast creators (01:02:09) Launching the first podcast ad network (01:04:10) Why anchor started sponsoring its own ad network (01:08:13) Spotify’s acquisition of Anchor (01:14:22) How Spotify won in podcast market share (01:16:34) Why the future of podcasts is video Referenced: Mike’s Podcast “Generative Now”: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXW6zY9x-gk1oPyjZ_qBCDEYKTbPpGa8S Mike’s blog posts: https://mignano.substack.com/p/the-standards-innovation-paradox https://mignano.substack.com/p/the-power-of-supergoals https://mignano.substack.com/p/startups-vs-incumbents-the-battle https://mignano.substack.com/p/all-podcast-roads-lead-to-video Where to find Mike: Twitter: https://twitter.com/mignano LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mignano Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Mike Mignano

Co-Founder

AnchorLightspeed Venture Partners

Michael Mignano is a partner at Lightspeed VC. Joe Marchese is a general and build partner at Human Ventures. The two investors join Big Technology Podcast to discuss this new wave of generative AI's potential. We interrogate how this technology might be overhyped, and then speak about the potential areas of opportunity. Three domains stand out: 1) Content creation and entertainment. 2) Search and discovery. 3) AI as an assistive agent. Tune in for the second half where we discuss platform strategy and the associated risks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Mignano

CEO

AnchorLightspeed Venture Partners

Joe Marchese

General & Build Partner

Human Ventures

Talking this week's big week for AI, with Parker Thompson (@pt) plus@miguelisolano&@mignano Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Parker Thompson

Partner

AngelListAntler

Miguel Solano

Mike Mignano

Co-Founder

AnchorLightspeed Venture Partners

In the 38th episode Founder of Anchor Mike Mignano joins to talk about how he and Logan met, the origins of Anchor, selling to Spotify, what he sees as the future of podcasting, and Web3’s role in the creator economy. Plus Logan talks about his most recent Twitter backlash over being reasonably skeptical. (0:00) Intro (1:02) Tennessee vs Alabama (5:58) Ghostwriter backlash (10:15) Introducing Mike Mignano (11:57) How Mike and Logan met (14:09) Mike’s programming background (17:37) Advice for kids (21:37) Left Accenture for a startup (27:42) Beginning of Anchor (39:44) Selling to Spotify (46:03) RSS as an open protocol (53:11) The future of podcasting (59:42) Clubhouse (1:04:15) Apps capturing a moment (1:06:41) Recommendation media (1:19:39) Web3 creator economy and monetization (1:28:36) Wrap up   Show Notes: Dead Cat Podcast - VC Ghostwriters (w/ Logan Bartlett)   Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky Produced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad Assir Executive Producer: Josh Machiz Music: Griff Lawson   🎙 Listen to the show Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/three-cartoon-avatars/id1606770839 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1 Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg   Follow on Socials 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/cartoonavatars 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/cartoonavatars 🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@cartoonavatars   About the Show A Saturday morning podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett (Partner and Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures) covering the tech news with his friends and other people with industry expertise. Executive Producer: Rashad Assir Producer: Leah Clapper Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1 Follow on Socials 📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow 📱 X - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow 🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow About the Show Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member. Tap follow and enable notifications to stay ahead of the game.

Mike Mignano

Co-Founder

AnchorLightspeed Venture Partners

Mike Mignano is a Partner @ Lightspeed, one of the most successful venture firms of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Snap, Affirm, Epic Games, Mulesoft and more. As for Mike, prior to venture, he was Head of Talk for Spotify where he led the podcast, live, and video businesses for the world's leading audio streaming platform. Michael came to Spotify through their acquisition of Anchor, a company he co-founded and is credited for democratizing podcasting globally. Mike has also been a prolific angel investor with a portfolio including Cameo, Pipe, Sandbox VR and Stir. In Today's Episode with Mike Mignano We Discuss: 1.) Exclusive News: What exclusive news does Mike have to share today? What would Mike most like to change about the way founders experience the product of venture capital? How can VCs be better? What is Mike most nervous about in the new role? 2.) The World of Social is Changing Forever: Why does Mike believe there has never been a better time for the next social media giant to be born? Why are the largest social giants leaving behind the social graph? What is recommendation media? Why is it a better business model? How does the shift from social graph to recommendation media change the way large social giants operate and interact today? 3.) Startups: Risers, Fallers and Is There Room For Another Giant? What does Mike believe Clubhouse did well? What was their undoing? Does Mike believe BeReal is defensible? What features make it both sticky and defensible? Will TikTok be a $2 trillion dollar company? Will Meta catch TikTok or have they gone too far ahead? Will OpenSea be able to sustain and make the market for NFTs, despite crypto crashing? Should startups be concerned about large social giants "copying" their features? What does true defensibility look like in consumer social today? 4.) Angel Investing: Hits, Misses and Lessons: From writing over 50 angel checks, what are the single biggest lessons Mike has learned? What has been his biggest hit? How did that change the way he thinks about investing? What has been his biggest miss? In what way did that change how he invests? What advice does Mike give to all angel investors looking to invest today?

Mike Mignano

Co-Founder

AnchorLightspeed Venture Partners

Today's show is a CLASSIC TWiST founder interview. Anchor Co-Founder Mike Mignano joins to tell Anchor's founding story (1:40), break down what it's like getting acquired by Spotify (15:32), and talk about how RSS standards might be stunting innovation in the podcasting space. (33:17) 0:00 Jason intros today's guest: Anchor Co-Founder Mike Mignano 1:40 Mike explains why he started Anchor, the original inspiration and first versions, finding PMF, building the nuts and bolts of a great podcast publishing experience 14:23 Helpware - Go to https://helpware.com/TWIST to get $1000 off your first invoice 15:32 Why Anchor sold to Spotify, the Series B term sheet they were considering at the time of acquisition, getting courted by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, Anchor's first check story 24:44 LinkedIn Jobs - Post your first job for free at https://linkedin.com/twist 25:58 Why Apple hasn't innovated in podcasting, paid podcasts vs. advertising 31:59 Babbel - Save up to 60% off your language learning subscription at https://babbel.com/twist 33:17 Why Mike wrote his recent article: “The Standards Innovation Paradox”, evolving standards to increase innovation, the Substack example Read Mike's article: https://mignano.medium.com/the-standards-innovation-paradox-e14cab521391

Mike Mignano

Co-Founder

AnchorLightspeed Venture Partners

Time for some deep analysis of the podcast industry. Is Spotify gonna take over all of audio? Is the blockchain useful for podcasting? What is the great Michael Mignano doing next, after leaving Spotify and Anchor? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Mignano

CEO

AnchorLightspeed Venture Partners

Anchor CEO Michael Mignano discusses the company's recent acquisition by Spotify, the future of podcasting, and whether Anchor could become the "YouTube for podcasts." The Verge's Nilay Patel and Ashley Carman talk to Mignano about the current difficulties the podcast industry faces along with possible solutions for discovery and questioning what to do with the RSS feed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michael Mignano

CEO

AnchorLightspeed Venture Partners

Mike Mignano is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Anchor, the app that allows you to share and engage with your network via audio, essentially radio for the people. Prior to founding Anchor, Mike was Head of Product @ Aviary, prior to it's acquisition by Adobe. Anchor was one of the hottest products at SXSW this year and has received funding from our good friends at Homebrew, SV Angel, Betaworks, Eniac Ventures, Scott Belsky and many more. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Mike come to found one of the hottest new audio startups, Anchor? 2.) Why have we seen such a renaissance of podcast listening? Will this continue in the long term future and if so, what will drive the long term future growth? 3.) How did Mike use the beta testing phase to learn and iterate on customer behaviour? Following this, how did he implement this feedback to create a community that could be harnessed on launch? 4.) When examining alongside Sarah Tavel's hierarchy of engagement, how does Mike address retention and the creation of virtuous loops within Anchor? 5.) How does Mike fundamentally attempt to menthes Anchor? At what level of growth can the cash taps be turned on? How can Anchor be made to be revenue generating for both the platform and content creators? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Mike's Fave Blog: The Skimm Mike's Fave Book: Cat's Cradle Sarah Tavel's Hierarchy of Engagement Jakob Nielsen UX Designer As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Mike 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!

Mike Mignano

Co-Founder

AnchorLightspeed Venture Partners