The outside advantage that your investor may be interested in
This week, Natasha Mascarenhas interviewed Sam Chaudhary, the founder of ClassDojo, and Chris Farmer, the founder and CEO of SignalFire, a venture firm that recently announced a $900 million fund to back tech startups. This interview is structured a bit differently as it was actually recorded as a TechCrunch Live session, our weekly show that focuses on helping people start better venture backed businesses.
We'll hear from the trio about:
What an outsider advantage looks like in startups, per a top investor
Why ClassDojo doesn’t see itself as an edtech company
How Sam landed early traction with a difficult-to-capture consumer
How both Sam and Chris are thinking through the AI question brewing in every office
If you want to check out the full video of today's conversation, including a round of Pitch Practice hosted by Matt Burns, head to our YouTube channel and stay tuned for more TechCrunch Live!
As always, the full Equity crew will be back on Friday, but you can keep up with us in the meantime @EquityPod.
For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.
Equity drops at 7:00 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotifyand all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders, one that details how our stories come together and 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.
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20VC Rising Star: Why Founders Should Expect More From Their VCs | How To Know Pre-Investment Whether a VC Will Be Valuable and How to Get the Most Value Out of Them | Is There a Misalignment Between Founders and VCs with Oana Olteanu, Partner @ SignalFir
Oana Olteanu is a Partner @ SignalFire where she focuses on enterprise software at Seed, Series A and Series B. Prior to joining SignalFire, Oana was at Scale Venture Partners where she invested in applied ML and developer tooling. Oana sourced Scale's investments in Observe.ai, Flatfile, and Proscia. She was part of the deal teams for Honeycomb and AllyO (acquired by HireVue). She also supported existing portfolio companies such as Dialpad, Matillion, and BigID. Prior to Scale, Oana was an AI seed investor at SAP.io, SAP's $35M seed fund, where she sourced the investments in Plum.io, Oto.ai, and Akorda.
In Today's Episode with Oana Olteanu We Discuss:
1.) From Tank Driving in Romania to VC's Rising Star:
How Oana made her way from driving tanks in Romania to becoming a VC?
How did leaving Romania for Germany and then moving to the West Coast impact her mindset?
What does Oana know now that she wishes she had known when she entered VC?
2.) How to Assess a VC: The Founders Guide:
Pre-investment, how can founders know whether a VC can add value? What are the signs?
What three core questions will reveal how much value a VC can add?
Post-investment, what can founders do to extract the most value from their VCs?
What should the founders ask their investors for help with? What should they do themselves?
3.) The VC <> Founder Relationship:
Oana has the highest founder NPS of any VC I have ever had on 20VC, what does Oana believe makes her founders rate her contribution so highly? What works? What does not?
How does Oana give sometimes very hard feedback to founders but retain that relationship of trust and safety at the same time? What mistakes do other VCs make in giving feedback?
What does Oana believe are the single biggest misalignment between VCs and founders?
4.) VCs Behaving Badly: 101
What are the single biggest ways Oana sees VCs behaving badly?
How does Oana think founders expectations of the product of venture should change?
Does Oana believe boards are valuable? What can be done to improve them?
Items Mentioned in Today's Episode:
Oana's Favourite Book: The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living: Featuring new translations of Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius
#175 - Brainstorming Million Dollar Ideas with Elaine Zelby
Shaan (@ShaanVP) and Sam (@TheSamParr) are joined by Elaine Zelby (@ezelby) for this brainstorm. Elaine brings the heat with ideas for starting a Saas bundle company (Sam says this is easily a $10m business), creating the "adult manual", the SNOO for adults, subscription running shoes, and a bunch of alternative health business ideas. Not only do they bring ideas, but they also break down how to pull off these businesses.
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* Support the pod by spreading the word, become a referrer here: refer.fm/million
* Have you joined our private Facebook group yet? Go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion and join thousands of other entrepreneurs and founders scheming up ideas.
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Show notes:
* (1:35) Introducing Elaine Zelby and Signal Fire
* (8:31) Shaan's first unicorn!
* (14:15) How Signal Fire finds deals
* (25:35) Investing in an Elon Musk idea
* (33:12) Startup SaaS bundle is a $10m idea
* (41:10) Creating the "adult manual"?
* (49:55) The SNOO for adult
* (53:25) Subscription running shoes
* (56:45) Brainstorming alternative health ideas
#124 - From Fantasy Stock Betting to Milk Bombs: Generating Ideas with Elaine Zelby
Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) hosts the pod solo with special guest Elaine Zelby (@ezelby). Elaine has a background in mechanical engineering but also worked at Slack and is now part of a VC group. On today’s episode you’ll hear: Elaine gives her background and how she came into the VC space (1:45), Elaine breaks down a new twist on cowering. Something she calls “Coworking 2.0” (3:35), Shaan pitches a new way to use nightclubs during their ofttimes (9:20), Elaine has a fresh take on credit cards for fans (12:20), Elaine explains why she is bullish on continuous cortisol monitoring (20:35), Elaine and Shaan brainstorm a fun take on “stock betting” (26:20), Elaine and Shaan go really deep on functional milks (32:50), How to automate re-zoning and permitting for real estate (40:14), Shaan breaks down a recent pitch he received of app-dating with only audio (47:40). Thank you to our partners this episode: Podium! Podium is an all-in-one SaaS tool that helps your business get reviews. Go to podium.com/mfm for 20% off and a $150 Amazon gift card. Have you joined our private FB group yet? It's a page where people share each others million dollar ideas or what they're already working on: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion.
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(Bonus) The Creator Economy Opportunity With @JoshConstine
For years, I quoted Josh Constine on this show because he was one of the breaking news-iest folks over at TechCrunch for years. Well, now he’s gone the well worn TC to VC route, and is a principal at SignalFire. I noticed Josh had his name on a SignalFire report looking at the creator ecosystem, not as some sort of weird outlier, but as an actual, mature economy. It’s the best breakdown I’ve seen of the creator economy overall… as we say extensively, currently the fastest growing category of startup business. So, I called up Josh to discuss the report. It’s linked in the show notes if you want to read it for yourself, but listen to this episode. If you’re not taking creators seriously as entrepreneurs and a category of startups, you’re missing the boat on something big. Enjoy.
SignalFire’s Creator Economy Market Map
Sponsors:
BuyRaycon.com/tech
Metalab.co
TinyCapital.com
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The baby boom in Silicon Valley and the future of work and education
In this episode of Product Hunt Radio, I'm visiting TechCrunch HQ to hang out with two journalists that see more startups in a month than most people in a lifetime.
Josh Constine is the Editor-At-Large at TechCrunch where he specializes his analysis on social products, including everything Facebook. Two fun facts: He's a Stanford graduate with a Master's degree in cybersociology and (like myself) a big fan of live music.
Sarah Buhr is a new mother and, as she announces on the show, is taking a break from reporting at TechCrunch to raise her child. I've known Sarah since she joined TechCrunch in 2014 and more recently she's focused her writing on the wild world of biotechnology.
We also have one more special guest: Sarah's beautiful six month old baby boy, Hayes. If you hear crying and clapping in the background, it's probably him.
In this episode we talk about:
The baby boom in Silicon Valley, including some of the coolest tech-enabled baby products helping tired moms and dads, as well as the ways that tech company cultures have changed since their founders and employees started having children.
Why it might be possible to beat unhealthiness with convenience. We talk about a number of startups that are trying to get you fit by making the healthy option the easier option, similar to how Spotify beat piracy by making streaming easier than pirating.
The future of work and education and how it will affect the world baby Hayes grows up in. We talk about why Sarah and her husband have been debating whether they should be saving for Hayes to go to college, how AR and VR will transform education and how automation will affect the workplace.
All things Facebook – whether new startups can compete with the massive social network and some quick thoughts on their first hardware product, Portal.
We of course also talk about some of their favorite products including a robot that makes burgers, a time-sucking app for meme lovers, and a virtual assistant that can do things for you when you run out of time (because you were browsing memes).
We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Also, big thanks to our sponsors, Airtable, GE Ventures, Intercom and Stripe for their support. 😸
Quotes from This Episode
“It's not just about transferring the work from humans to robots, because I think that gives us all that empty dystopic feeling. The idea is that rather than removing the humans from the equation, you instead want to remove the robotic elements of the humans’ jobs so that the humans can actually focus on the most personable, human, empathic part of the job.” — Josh
“Harvard came out with a study that said that lots of screen time isn’t bad for your child — what's critical is that you’re there present watching the screen with your child.” — Sarah
“You can’t just take peoples' livelihood away and give them the money instead, because they’re not going to feel like they have any purpose anymore.” — Josh
“I think what we’ve seen is that even if you make $19 billion off your startup, like WhatsApp, and you sell it to someone else, that means that you are no longer the captain of that ship and you may never get such a beautiful ship again.” — Josh
Companies and Products Mentioned in This Episode
Creator — Robot-made burgers.
Fin — Virtual assistant service.
Imgur — The most viral images on the internet.
Libby — Borrow eBooks and audiobooks for free instantly through your local library.
Mirror — The mirror that's also an interactive home gym.
O.school — Original videos and GIFs to learn sex, pleasure, and dating.
Snoo — The world's most technologically advanced bassinet.
TBH — The only anonymous app with positive vibes.
Thistle — Healthy meal subscription service.
Tonal — Machine learning digital gym + personal training built in.
20VC: Why There Is A Revolution In VC, Why Boards Are Inherently Inefficient & Why Data Will Be Central To VC In The Future with Chris Farmer, General Partner @ SignalFire
Chris Farmer is a General Partner @ SignalFire, as he describes, 'the most quantitative fund in the world.' Chris has also assembled 50 other on-demand advisors to aid portfolio companies including Slack CEO, Stewart Butterfield, AltSchool Founder, Max Ventilla and Pinterest President, Tim Kendall. SignalFire's portfolio includes the likes of Uber, ClassDojo and Rocksbox just to name a few. Prior to SignalFire, Chris was a Venture Partner @ General Catalyst where he aided the development of their seed program. Prior to General Catalyst, Chris spent 4 years as a VP @ Bessemer Venture Partners.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Chris made his way into the world of venture and came to be Founding Partner @ Signal Fire?
2.) Why does Chris believe the VC industry has not changed in the last 40 years? Why are the old guard of VCs worried for the evolution?
3.) Why does Chris believe data and tech will be centre to the revolution that is happening in VC? How will data be used to enhance the VC value add to startups in the coming years?
4.) From interviewing over 500 Founders, what was the most common challenges and problems founders face today? How should VCs be positioning themselves to provide additional value?
5.) What does Chris believe boards are so inherently inefficient? What would Chris like to see change in the world of boards? How does Chris position himself in terms of, board to partner ratio?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Chris' Fave Blog: Above The Crowd: Bill Gurley
Chris' Fave Book: The Success Equation
Chris' Most Recent Investment: Frame.io
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Chris on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
So many problems start with your head: stress, depression, anxiety, fear of the future. What if there was some kind of exercise you could do, that would help you get your head in shape. That's where the Headspace app comes in. Headspace is meditation made simple. The Headspace app provides guided meditations you can use whenever you want, wherever you want, on your phone, computer or tablet. They have sessions focused on everything from dealing with stress and depression, to helping you eat more mindfully. So download the Headspace app and start your journey towards a happier, healthier life. Learn more at headspace.com/20vc. That's headspace.com/20vc.
Xero is beautiful, easy-to- use online accounting software for small businesses. With Xero, you can easily manage your accounting anytime, anywhere from your computer or mobile device.When you add Xero to your small business you are able to: Send online invoices and get paid faster. Get an instant view of your cash flow. Track your payroll and keep tabs on your inventory. Partner with your accountant and bookkeeper in real time whenever you like. You can also customize your Xero experience with over five hundred business apps, including advanced solutions for point-of- sale, time tracking, ecommerce and more. Sign up for a free thirty-day trial at Xero.com/20vc.