E993: Superhuman CEO Rahul Vohra shares the formula for his Product-Market Fit Engine; Future of Angel Investing w/Jeff Clavier (Uncork), Ben Ling (Bling), Clara Brenner (Urban Innovation Fund); plus LAUNCH Scale Partner Talk w/Help Scout VP of Sales Tim Thyne
0:48 Jason intros Rahul Vohra
3:21 Rahul gives a talk on building a "Product-Market Fit Engine"
29:42 Rahul takes questions from the LAUNCH Scale audience
37:28 Jason intros the "Future of Angel Investing" panelists: Ben Ling (Bling Capital), Clara Brenner (Urban Innovation Fund) & Jeff Clavier (Uncork Capital)
38:54 Has Silicon Valley reached peak entitlement?
41:44 Is "too much $ chasing too few companies" the new normal in VC
45:47 How important is price & valuation in decision making?
49:10 Importance of early revenue & strong board governance
52:28 How many of their biggest hits had multiple revenue models?
58:00 What is "venture-scale" in terms of growth rate?
1:02:40 How to train new associates to understand the importance of revenue quality?
1:09:13 LAUNCH Scale Partner Talk featuring Help Scout's VP of Sales Tim Thyne
20VC: Andy McLoughlin on The Benefits of Backing Unsexy Businesses with Non-Obvious Founders, How To Distinguish Between A Good Bridge Round and A Bridge To Nowhere & Whether VCs Really Do Add Value?
Andy McLoughlin is Partner @ Uncork Capital, formerly SoftTech and one of the leading early-stage funds on the West Coast. In their incredible portfolio, they have the likes of Fitbit, SendGrid, PostMates, Front, PoshMark, Eventbrite and many more. As for Andy, he loves to invest in "unsexy ideas" with stellar teams and has led deals in the likes of Postmates, LaunchDarkly, Human Interest (previously Captain 401), and Focal Systems just to name a few. Prior to VC, Andy co-founded Huddle, an enterprise collaboration platform which raised more than $80M in venture funding before its acquisition in 2017. Andy also has a stellar angel portfolio with the likes of Buffer, Intercom and Pipedrive all angel investments.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Andy made the transition from Founder of one of the UK's hottest startups to one of the leading early-stage VCs in Silicon Valley?
2.) Why did Softtech decide to make the big decision to rebrand to Uncork several years into the journey? What is core to successfully relaunching a VC brand to the ecosystem?
3.) Andy likes to back "non-obvious founders" building "non-sexy businesses". What does Andy mean by "non-obvious founder"? How do they tend to behave differently to more seasoned serial entrepreneur founders from the valley? What does a "non-sexy business look like to Andy"? Why does he see such inherent opportunity within these segments?
4.) How does Andy evaluate the challenge of immensely long sales cycles within these industries? How can these be mitigated and measured against? How does this affect Andy's thinking on the right amount of runway to raise for? How does Andy assess the often issue of regulation? How does Andy distinguish between viable/ non-viable?
5.) How does Andy assess VC value add? Where does Andy believe he can provide the most value to his portfolio? Why does Andy believe startups are not just competing against other plays in their space but every startup in the valley?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Andy's Fave Book: Venture Deals
Andy's Most Recent Investment: Fritz
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Andy on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
We also speak about Movidiam – as brands turn to smarter ways of creating video and digital content, the Movidiam platform offers faster turnarounds whilst maintaining or improving quality. They're already working with some of the biggest, most innovative companies to help compare teams and freelancers across the global curated network of creative talent. Producers and marketers looking for the best creatives can get a shortlist from Movidiam's account managers in hours – tailored to their project's needs. Submit a brief or check out the platform at Movidiam.com.
20VC: SoftTech VC's Andy McLoughlin on The Series A Crunch, Maximising Runway and Minimising Burn and For Startups
Andy McLoughlin is a Partner with SoftTech VC, where he primarily invests in B2B, SaaS, developer tools and mobile applications. Prior to joining SoftTech, Andy was co-founder of London-based Huddle, under Andy’s leadership, Huddle became one of Europe’s most awarded and well-known technology startups, raising over $80M of venture funding to date. Since 2010 Andy has been a prolific angel investor building a portfolio covering 35 startups, mostly in the SaaS / B2B space. Just to name a few of the investments from his incredible portfolio Andy was an angel in the likes of Buffer, Intercom, Pipedrive, Postmates, Secret Escapes, just to name a few.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Andy made his startup as an entrepreneur and then VC?
2.) What was it that made Andy make the move from the world of entrepreneurship to VC?
3.) As a seed stage investor, what does Andy make of the Series A crunch? How prevalent has it been for him as an investor? What is the optimal amount of runway founders should raise for?
4.) What does Andy think of the size and cadence of the first funding rounds that we are seeing now? What does he make of the rise of the second seed or the bridge round? Is it an indication of trouble?
5.) SoftTech are near the closing of Fund V, so what is the thesis and the mission going forward? What themes and spaces is Andy most excited by and why?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Andy's Fave Book:
The New York Trilogy, Hatching Twitter
Andy's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Medium Newsletter, Mark Suster: Both Sides Of The Table
Andy's Most Recent Investment:
Captain401
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Andy 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! This episode was supported by Wunder Capital, the leading online investment platform that allows individuals to invest in large scale solar projects across the U.S. Wunder’s solar investment funds allow you to earn up to 11% annually, while diversifying your portfolio, curbing pollution and combating global climate change. Do well by doing good and sign up for a free account here and join the thousands of people that are already achieving their investment targets.
20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups
Jeff Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of SoftTech VC, one of the most established seed VC firms in Silicon Valley, having closed 150 investments since 2004. An early angel investor in Web 2.0, Jeff and his team have backed successful startups like Mint (Intuit), Milo (eBay), Bleacher Report (Turner), Fitbit, Eventbrite, Sendgrid, Postmates and Vungle. The portfolio has also seen acquisitions by Groupon, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo and AOL. The firm is currently investing out of its $85M Fund IV, making 16 commitments of $850K per year in mobile/cloud saas, consumer hardware, marketplaces and healthcare IT.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Jeff made his entry into the world of VC?
2.) In a time when hardware was not heavily invested in, what attracted Jeff to Fitbit?
3.) How did Jeff convince Brad to invest in Fitbit?
4.) What can startups do to standout in the crowded market that exists today?
5.) What do startups need to have to get a meeting with you at SoftTech?
6.) What VCs does Jeff most like to invest alongside?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Jeff's Fave Book: June by Gerbrand Bakker
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Jeff and SoftTech VC on Twitter here!
For a more colourful look into Harry's life, you can follow him on Instagram here!