ANGEL: Threshold VC’s Emily Melton on market distortion, healthcare investing & culture | E1693
Emily Melton joins Molly to discuss her early days in venture and what she learned while working at DFJ (1:30). Then, they talk about the barriers that healthcare imposes on entrepreneurship (17:22), building a diverse culture within venture capital (29:53), market distortions, and how to optimize for a down market (38:42).
(0:00) Molly kicks off the show
(1:30) Getting started in Venture Capital
(8:12) LinkedIn Jobs - Go to https://linkedIn.com/angel and post your first job for free
(9:38) Learnings from working at DFJ
(17:22) Healthcare being a barrier to entrepreneurship
(20:11) Prenuvo - Get $300 off at http://prenuvo.com/twist
(21:41) Threshold Ventures’ fund mechanics
(26:15) Investing in Tia: Healthcare solutions for woman
(29:53) Building culture
(37:45) Pilot - Get 20% off the first 6 months at https://pilot.com/twist
(38:42) Optimizing for a down market
(52:13) What’s next?
FOLLOW Emily: https://twitter.com/emelton
FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis
FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood
Harbor and TrustToken on Why They Don't Mind Being Unsexy - Ep.77
Josh Stein, CEO of Harbor, and Danny An, cofounder and CEO of TrustToken, talk about security tokens and tokens backed by real-world assets, often called an unsexy area of crypto. They explain the strategies their teams are using to tackle the tokenization of what currently constitute $250 trillion in assets, what kinds of new behaviors and business opportunities "faster, cheaper, more liquid" assets could open up, and how they'll comply with regulations across all jurisdictions for markets that are global and trade 24/7/365.
Thank you to our sponsors!
StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained
The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com
Episode links:
Harbor: https://harbor.com
Trust Token: https://www.trusttoken.com
True USD: https://www.trusttoken.com/trueusd/
An overview of security tokens: https://medium.com/@apompliano/the-official-guide-to-tokenized-securities-44e8342bb24f
More on Harbor and security tokens: http://fortune.com/2018/05/18/security-token-harbor-ce
More on True USD: https://venturebeat.com/2018/07/18/trusttoken-readies-sale-of-more-trueusd-asset-based-tokens/
The PICO: https://medium.com/harborhq/introducing-the-private-ico-pico-3e8b782924c1
Episode with Meltem Demirors and Jill Carlson: http://unchainedpodcast.co/episode-74
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
SaaStr 123: Top 10 VP of Sales Lessons In Scaling To $100m in ARR with DFJ, TalkDesk and Predictable Revenue's, Aaron Ross
Today's show is centred around The Top 10 VP of Sales Lessons Learned In Scaling To $100M ARR. Leading this conversation is Aaron Ross, author of best selling book, Predictable Revenue, providing the framework for the outbound process & sales team Aaron created for Salesforce.com. During his time at Salesforce as Director of Corporate Development and Acquisitions, Aaron added an extra $100 million in revenue in just a few years. Joining Aaron from the sales perspective we have Andrew Bothwell, VP of Sales @ TalkDesk and Aaron Schilke, VP Enterprise Sales @ Talkdesk, one of the fastest growing SaaS startups today. Providing insight from the other side of the table we have Josh Stein, Partner @ DFJ where his current board responsibilities include Box (NYSE: BOX), Chartbeat, LaunchDarkly, LendKey, SugarCRM, and previous guest with me on SaaStr in Talkdesk. But enough from me so without further ado I am going to hand over the reigns to Aaron Ross.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
What does Josh Stein believe is the toughest growth stage in SaaS? Which stage separates the men from the boys?
Why is growing to 100 a case of simple maths? How does this maths affect how you should think about your sales hiring pipeline? How does this maths affect your view of forecasting?
How do TalkDesk look to build a repeatable and scalable sales process? What have been their major learnings? Where do most startups make mistakes and falter?
How should VPs of sales approach feedback with their reps? Why has a VP failed if a rep is blindsided by a particular piece of feedback?
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
20VC: Why You Should Not Invest From Patterns, Why No Good Business Was Built As An Analogy Of Another & Why The Rise Of The 'Celebrity Investor' Is Concerning with Emily Melton, Partner @ DFJ
Emily Melton is partner at DFJ, where she focuses on consumer and mobile technology, as well as healthcare technologies and marketplaces. Emily has made investments in the likes of BetterUp, Elation Health, Livongo, Redfin, Shift, and Wellframe. Early in Emily's career, she sourced investments in Box (NYSE: BOX), Meebo (Google), Kudo (Google), RichRelevance, and Flux (MTV Networks). She was also an advisor to Pulse Network (LinkedIn), Healthtap, and Poshmark.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Emily made her way into the wonderful world of VC following her meeting with Tim Draper?
2.) How does Emily view the importance of pattern recognition? Why does Emily believe that you should not invest from patterns? What is the difference between a pattern and an investing fad?
3.) Why does Emily hate analogies? Why does she believe it is simplistic thinking? How can this be mitigated for startup founders in describing their company?
4.) How does Emily view the portfolio approach to risk in venture? What questions need to be asked to determine the potential outcome of the business?
5.) Why does Emily get concerned by the rise of the 'celebrity investor'? How can investors build their brand in the proliferated world of early stage startup investing?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Emily's Fave Book: Mindset by Carol Dweck, A Theory of Justice by John Rawls
Emily's Most Recent Investment: BetterUp
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
The Simba Hybrid. The most advanced mattress in the world. With a unique combination of two thousand five hundred conical pocket springs and responsive memory foam, it offers the perfect support for two people. A mattress that responds to you and your partner's sleeping patterns. Delivered free, with a one hundred night sleep trial, free returns and a ten year guarantee. Start your free trial at simbasleep.com
Cirrus Insight is a plugin for sales pros who use Gmail and Outlook. It automatically updates activities in Salesforce so you don't have to. It was named #41 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies, and it has more than 1,700 customer reviews on the Salesforce AppExchange. Today, it serves over 150,000 sales people across 5,000 organizations using Gmail, Outlook, iPhone, iPad, and Android. Cirrus Insight is perfect for sales, support, and success teams who want to save time, schedule 3x more appointments, track email opens and much more with Salesforce information at their fingertips in the inbox. www.cirrusinsight.com/20VC
20VC: DFJ's Josh Stein on Why VCs Must Adapt To Their Founders, The Major Transition Points For Aaron Levie @ Box & Why SaaS Startups Are Growing At A Rate Never Seen Before
Josh Stein is Partner @ DFJ where his current board responsibilities include Box (NYSE: BOX), Chartbeat, LaunchDarkly, LendKey, SugarCRM, and previous guests with me on SaaStr in Periscope and Talkdesk. He is also actively involved with the firm's investments in AngelList, Doximity and Twilio (NYSE: TWLO) just to name a few. Prior to joining DFJ, Josh was a VP at Telephia, where he managed a group providing strategic analysis and information to the nation's largest wireless carrier. Previously, Josh was a co-founder for ViaFone (NYSE: SY), a DFJ portfolio company and a leading provider of wireless enterprise applications. Josh met the DFJ team when the firm co-led ViaFone's Series A investment.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Josh made his way from the world of operations to Partner @ DFJ?
2.) How does Josh analyze the VC/ Founder fit? How does Josh look to build trust and transparency in that relationship? What is an example of how Josh has changed his style to fit the character of an entrepreneur?
3.) Question from Greg Sands: What did Josh see in the early days of Box with a young Aaron Levie, what was it that made him so excited?
4.) Question from Mamoon Hamid @ Social Capital: Looking at Box today, what will it take for Box to 10x their value? What needs to happen in the market? What needs to happen to the product roadmap?
5.) Question from Jason Lemkin @ SaaStr: How is it that we are seeing companies like TalkDesk and Twilio grow at a rate never seen before in today's SaaS environment?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Josh's Fave Blog: TermSheet
Josh's Fave Book: Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success
Josh's Most Recent Investment: LaunchDarkly
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Josh on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
The Simba Hybrid. The most advanced mattress in the world. With a unique combination of two thousand five hundred conical pocket springs and responsive memory foam, it offers the perfect support for two people. A mattress that responds to you and your partner's sleeping patterns. Delivered free, with a one hundred night sleep trial, free returns and a ten year guarantee. Start your free trial at simbasleep.com
Cirrus Insight is a plugin for sales pros who use Gmail and Outlook. It automatically updates activities in Salesforce so you don't have to. It was named #41 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies, and it has more than 1,700 customer reviews on the Salesforce AppExchange. Today, it serves over 150,000 sales people across 5,000 organizations using Gmail, Outlook, iPhone, iPad, and Android. Cirrus Insight is perfect for sales, support, and success teams who want to save time, schedule 3x more appointments, track email opens and much more with Salesforce information at their fingertips in the inbox. www.cirrusinsight.com/20VC
Saastr 009: What Makes A Truly Great SaaS CEO with Josh Stein @ DFJ
This episode was recorded at Saastr Annual 2016 featuring Jason Lemkin, Founder @ Saastr and Josh Stein, Partner @ DFJ. For those that do not know, Josh is arguably one of the most successful investors in the SaaS space having backed the likes of Box, Twilio, Yammer and many more from the very earliest of stages.
In Today's Show We Cover:
What is the fundamental differing between a great and a good CEO in SaaS?
Is it possible to learn to become a great CEO?
What did Aaron Levie do to enable Box to scale so successfully?
How can startup founders determine whether they have the ability to go the distance as CEO?
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
Josh Stein
If you enjoyed the conversation with Keith today and want to save your space at what promises to be the best Saastr Annual ever, Saastr Annual 2017! You can buy early bird tickets here!
20VC: Tim Draper on Investing In Tesla, The Best Pitch He Has Ever Seen & The Evolution of Venture and Startups
Tim Draper is the founding partner of leading venture capital firms Draper Associates and DFJ. Some of his Venture successes include Skype, Baidu, Tesla, Hotmail, Twitch.tv, and hundreds of others. Fun fact about Tim, it was his original suggestion to use viral marketing in web-based email to geometrically spread an Internet product to its market was instrumental to the successes of Hotmail, YahooMail, and Gmail and has been adopted as a standard marketing technique by thousands of businesses. His prominence is evident through his being named 100 most influential Harvard Alumni, and seven on the Forbes Midas List. He was named Always-On #1 top venture capital deal maker.
We would like to say a special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data used in the show today and you can check out Mattermark Search here!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Tim made his way into startups and the investing industry?
2.) Having founded Draper Associates in 1985, how has Tim seen the investing landscape develop over time?
3.) Draper obviously invests across a variety of stage, but what is Tim's preferred stage? Where does he see the most opportunity for venture returns? Why?
4.) Of all the companies Tim has seen, which was the best pitch? Why? Which founder inspired Tim the most? Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?
5.) What is DraperU? What are the plans for the future? What is the vision? Why did Tim choose to do a reality show in StartupU? Has it been a very different experience being the lead in a TV show compared to investing in startups?
6.)Why is behind Tim's immense belief in Bitcoin. Why is this? When did Tim realize the potential? How long will adoption take?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Tim's Fave Book: The Startup Game by William Draper, Michael Rothschild: Bionomics
Tim's Most Recent Investment: Laurel and Wolf, Favor Delivery
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Tim 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!