ANGEL: Freestyle’s Jenny Lefcourt on nailing non-consensus bets and avoiding hype | E1704
Jenny Lefcourt of Freestyle VC joins Jason for an insightful conversation. They delve into the mission of All Raise and the importance of diversity in venture capital (2:04). Jenny shares her thoughts on embracing non-consensus bets and her experiences investing in Narvar and Discord (20:04). Additionally, they discuss the value of strategy meetings in comparison to traditional board meetings (59:10).
(0:00) Jason kicks off the show
(2:04) Co-Founding All Raise: Promoting Diversity in Venture Capital
(9:53) Prenuvo - Save $300 on Full Body Scans at http://prenuvo.com/twist
(11:23) Biases Towards Certain Business Models
(15:05) Identifying and Avoiding Unsuccessful Business Models
(18:54) LinkedIn Jobs - Post Your First Job for Free at https://linkedIn.com/angel
(20:04) Embracing Non-Consensus Bets
(22:53) Jenny’s Investment in Narvar
(28:16) Understanding the Economics of a Seed Fund
(35:14) Comparing Hype: Generative AI versus Web 3.0
(40:47) Miro - Collaborate with Unlimited Team Members for Free at https://miro.com/startups/
(42:28) Insights from Jenny's Investment in Discord
(47:05) Attaining Product-Market Fit and Making a Significant Impact
(56:56) Exiting Deals: When to Move On
(59:10) Strategy Meetings Compared to Board Meetings
(1:04:04) Jenny's Ideal Timeline for Committing to Investments
FOLLOW Jenny: https://twitter.com/jennylefcourt
FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis
Subscribe to our YouTube to watch all full episodes:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkkhmBWfS7pILYIk0izkc3A?sub_confirmation=1
FOUNDERS! Subscribe to the Founder University podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/founder-university/id1648407190
Special episode: How to pitch a Series A (TechCrunch Live Podcast)
This week, the Equity team is spotlighting one of our sister podcasts: TechCrunch Live. Matt Burns hopped on the mic with Jenny Lefcourt from Freestyle Partners and Guillaume de Zwirek, CEO and co-founder of WELL Health, to talk all about raising a Series A and specific steps for founders to follow.
As you’ll hear from Lefourt and de Zwirek, there are notable differences between raising a seed round and a Series A round. Investors look at different aspects of the company, and the founder must prepare for the fundraising differently. Rather than selling a story, they’re selling a company. To help even more founders, Lefcourt prepared a blog post to go along with her TechCrunch Live appearance that goes even deeper into raising a Series A.
If you want to hear more shows like this, don't forget to take our listener survey and enter for a chance to win a free year of TC+!
Equity drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has agreat show on crypto, ashow that interviews founders, ashow that details how our stories come togetherand more!
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
Elon buys ~9% stake in Twitter + Freestyle Capital's Dave Samuel | E1426
First, Jason and Molly discuss Elon buying a 9.2% stake in Twitter (01:50). Then, Dave Samuel of Freestyle VC joins (23:18) for a discussion on early stage investing. Freestyle invested early in startups including Airtable, Patreon and Intercom. We talk about how fund size dictates strategy, how to give feedback to founders (especially when it's a no) and more.
(00:00) Jason and Molly intro today’s show
(01:50) Elon takes 9.2% stake in Twitter, TWTR stock up ~28% today
(11:09) Masterworks - Skip the waitlist to invest in art using promo code TWIST at https://Masterworks.io/twist
(12:250 Do we want more people to take stakes like this?
(20:58) Ourcrowd - Check out the deal of the week at https://ourcrowd.com/twist
(23:18) Interview with Dave Samuel of Freestyle VC
(30:13) iTrust Capital - Visit https://itrust.capital/twist to create your Crypto IRA today
(31:27) Dave’s lessons for other capital allocators and founders
FOLLOW Dave: https://twitter.com/dsamuel
Check out Freestyle: https://freestyle.vc
FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis
FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood
Jenny Lefcourt - The Go-to-Market Motion - [Invest Like the Best, EP. 245]
My guest today is Jenny Lefcourt, an equal General Partner at seed-stage venture firm Freestyle Capital, where she manages $450 million in seed investments. Jenny has been engrained in the tech world since the early days of the internet. She dropped out of her Stanford MBA program to co-found online wedding registry startup WeddingChannel.com with classmate, Jessica Herrin, which was subsequently acquired by The Knot. During our conversation, we cover Jenny's investment frameworks, why she believes a deep understanding of the customer is key for founder success, and what makes great go-to-market strategies. We also touch on some of Jenny's favorite market themes around technology for the aging population, the future of work, and the growing low-code/no-code market. Please enjoy my conversation with Jenny Lefcourt.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.
------
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:24] - [First question] - Her background and some formative experiences that lead her to where she is today
[00:08:38] - Common patterns of desirable founders when it comes to customer focus
[00:09:50] - Her investing framework for evaluating and deciding which companies to invest in
[00:15:11] - The biggest jobs to be done in this space currently today
[00:17:33] - Cultural differences in how the West views and treats their elderly
[00:21:02] - Business model options for turn-key apartments offered by UpsideHoM
[00:22:48] - Other categories and potential opportunities in tech geared towards the elderly
[00:24:59] - What you need to do differently when building products for the elderly
[00:27:32] - How she learns about a new prospect’s go-to-market approach and reverse engineering an action plan to execute it
[00:32:03] - Founders, You Want to Sell Viagra
[00:33:33] - Selling transformation and an overview of this idea with BetterUp
[00:36:30] - Her thoughts on how the world and the future of work might change
[00:43:24] - The emerging movement of low code/no code tools
[00:46:58] - How she as an investor adjusts as the world becomes more digitally connected
[00:49:02] - Ways her life has most dramatically changed over the past few years
[00:51:33] - Lessons learned from her time at All Raise
[00:53:40] - Outstanding and remaining barriers to inclusive and diverse teams
[00:58:47] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for her
E1086: Supporting founder mental health at Freestyle Capital with Josh Felser, Caren Maio & Mani Kulasooriya
Josh's Medium post on founder mental health: https://medium.com/@joshmedia/for-the-love-of-founders-d50b405f42a3
Hoffman Institute: https://www.hoffmaninstitute.org/
Meru Health: https://www.meruhealth.com/
Check out Freestyle Capital: https://freestyle.vc/
Check out Funnel Leasing: https://funnelleasing.com/
Check out Codify: https://codify.ai/
Follow Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis
E1025: #StartupTuneup @ Founder.University Part 2!: 6 founders pitch to Jason & Dave Samuel of Freestyle Capital on AI driving assistance, sleep-aid wearables, marijuana, B2B food analytics & more!
1:07 Megan pitches Moment AI (facial recognition software that helps drivers)
3:19 Juan pitches DreamOn (wearable and app that help you fall asleep and sleep better)
5:38 Elissa pitches Fumé (marijuana products)
7:46 Feedback & questions for Cohort 3
19:54 Rankings for Cohort 3
23:38 Stewart pitches EVOLUTIONS (marketplace for financial fitness)
25:34 Nadia pitches Keybee (marketplace for short-term rental support services)
29:21 Riana pitches Journey Foods (service that brings metrics and nutrition tools to improve product development)
31:45 Feedback & questions for Cohort 4
42:49 Rankings for Cohort 4
47:43 Jason & Dave rank the best companies from cohorts 1-4
E1024: #StartupTuneup @ Founder.University: 6 founders pitch to Jason & Dave Samuel of Freestyle Capital on merging communication networks, athlete performance tracking, DTC women’s clothing, smart tabletop gaming systems & more!
1:31 Bryan pitches Project OWL (smart communications platform)
3:46 Erin pitches Nude Barre (DTC eco-friendly hosiery)
6:02 Mike pitches STACT (Athlete performance tracking)
8:05 Feedback & questions for Cohort 1
16:53 Rankings for Cohort 1
19:53 Jonathan pitches Move38 (smart tabletop gaming)
22:04 Brandon pitches ReplyBuy (text messaging support for sports, entertainment & higher education)
24:20 Stella pitches Stella Carakasi DTC (Size-inclusive & affordable luxury clothing for women)
28:22 Feedback & questions for Cohort 2
37:55 Rankings for Cohort 2
E994: All Turtles CEO Phil Libin shares his state machine that answers all growth questions; Future of Early-Stage VC w/Pete Flint (NFX), Rebecca Lynn (Canvas Ventures), Dave Samuel (Freestyle Capital); plus LAUNCH Scale Partner Talk w/Lever CTO Nate Smith
1:03 Jason intros Phil Libin from LAUNCH Scale 2019
1:51 Phil Libin on "The State Machine that Answers All Growth Questions"
32:40 Jason joins Phil on stage for Q&A
39:56 Jason intros Phil (NFX), Rebecca (Canvas Ventures) & Dave (Freestyle Capital)
41:34 Transitioning from founder to VC
44:08 How to let a founder know when they are headed down the wrong path
47:42 At what stage does a founder have to change their mindset?
49:49 Dave Samuel on Airtable CEO Howie Liu not taking his advice and succeeding anyway
52:21 How Rebecca Lynn recruited current LendingClub CEO Scott Sanborn in the early days
55:39 Should startups still relocate to the Bay Area under any circumstances?
1:03:40 How are VCs dealing with the influx in the number of startups over the past 10 years?
1:13:23 LAUNCH Scale Partner Talk: Lever CTO Nate Smith
20VC: Can Founders Really Trust Their VC & How To Navigate The Acquisition Process Successfully with Josh Felser, Co-Founder @ Freestyle.vc
Josh Felser is a Co-Founder and General Partner at Freestyle, one of SF's leading early stage seed funds with investments in the likes of About.me, Airtable, Intercom and Patreon just to name a few. As for Josh, prior to being in VC with Freestyle, Josh started two successful Internet companies, Spinner and Grouper/Crackle, which were acquired by AOL Time Warner and Sony for $320 million and $65 million, respectively.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Josh made the transition from the world of startups to founding Freestyle?
2.) Can founders really trust their VC? What is the sign that you can and then cannot trust your VC? How does this depend on the differing stages?
3.) When is the right time for founders to throw in the towel and sell? What are the signs? Is it the role of the board member to encourage and push the founder forward?
4.) Josh has said before that 'companies are sold and not bought'. What does he mean by this? How can founders optimize the acquisition process in terms of the dialogue with the acquirer? How should they approach the topic of valuation? How can they create a sense of urgency? Who are the certain stakeholders they must be talking to?
5.) How has Josh seen himself develop as a board member? What have been the inflection points in his learnings? What are the core components that make up a great board member?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Josh's Fave Book: Snowcrash
Josh's Fave Blog: Five Best Ideas of The Day: The Aspen Institute
Josh's Most Recent Investment: Carbon Robotics
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.
Foundersuite makes the leading CRM for raising startup capital. Since March of 2016, Foundersuite customers have raised over $130M in seed and venture capital. Foundersuite's CRM sits on a database of over 50,000 investors, which will help you quickly populate your fundraising funnel including a beautiful and easy-to-use investor update tool, and the recently launched a new portal that helps investors and accelerators track their portfolio companies on a single dashboard. For a whopping 40% off a Monthly or Annual subscription use the code "20MinuteVC" at checkout.
Greenhouse Software designs tools that help companies hire great people and ultimately build better businesses. Greenhouse works with over 1,500 of the world's most innovative companies such as Airbnb, Slack, Snap Inc. and Lyft. A wrong hire is not only costly for a company but can also turn an employee into an unhappy one. With Greenhouse's Applicant Tracking System, companies can make well-informed decisions and hire qualified candidates who are empowered to do the best work of their careers. Anybody who has a company that's scaling quickly but has trouble hiring and retaining the right people. Visit www.greenhouse.io today to discover how your company can grow.
20VC: How Startups Should React To Today's Funding Environment & Why Big Markets Are More Forgiving with Jenny Lefcourt, Partner @ Freestyle.vc
Jenny Lefcourt is a Partner @ Freestyle where she invests in early stage tech companies. Prior to Freestyle, Jenny was the Founder of Weddingchannel.com and Bella Pictures which were both acquired. During this time, Jenny raised funds from titans of VC including Kleiner Perkins, Trinity Ventures, Amazon and more. Jenny has also angel invested and advised some incredible entrepreneurs with the likes of Minted and Style Seat. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Jenny made his way into VC from founding and exiting 2 startups?
2.) What were the differences in raising money as a founder and as a VC? What learnings as a founder did Jenny have that have helped her move into VC?
3.) How have the large macro-economic changes affected Jenny's investing style? Has she seen a change in her investment cadence? Does Jenny place more emphasis on burn reduction now?
4.) Why does Freestyle not invest with a thesis? What are the benefits of this? How does Jenny make investment decisions going forward without a thesis?
5.) What does Jenny mean when she says that VCs suffer from duck syndrome? What can VCs do to make them the best and their founders life easier?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Jenny's Fave Book: Dreamland, Blinkist (Harry's Suggestion)
Jenny's Most Recent Investment: CREXi
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Jenny 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!
