20VC: Kleiner Perkins' Mamoon Hamid on Investing Lessons from Leading Rounds in Figma, Slack and Rippling | Lessons Building a Generational Defining Firm with Kleiner Perkins | AI: Where Value Accrues, Startups vs Incumbents & Scaling Laws
Mamoon Hamid is a General Partner @ Kleiner Perkins and one of the greatest venture investors of our time. In the past, Mamoon has led rounds in Figma, Slack, Rippling, Intercom, Glean and Box. Prior to joining Kleiner Perkins, Mamoon was a Co-Founder of Social Capital, and prior to that a Partner at U.S. Venture Partners (USVP).
In Today's Episode with Mamoon Hamid We Discuss:
1. The Greatest Venture Deal of All Time: Figma or Slack:
What is Mamoon's highest returning deal?
What did Mamoon see in Dylan and Figma when they had no revenue and very little user data?
What compelled Mamoon to write Stewart the check with Slack? What did he not see with Slack that he should have seen?
2. Taking Control of the Great Brand in Venture: Kleiner Perkins:
Is it true that Kleiner approached Mamoon and gave him the keys to the Kleiner kingdom? How did it go down?
Will Kleiner go back to having multiple products, large growth funds, international funds? What does Mamoon want Kleiner to be in 5 years?
What was the hardest element of the transition into Kleiner? What did Mamoon not know that he wishes he had known?
3. Becoming a Generational Defining Investor:
Market, founder, product, how does Mamoon rank them 1-3?
How has Mamoon changed most significantly as an investor?
What does he know now that he wishes he had known when he became a VC 19 years ago?
What is his biggest loss? How did it shape his mindset and go forward investing approach?
4. AI Supercycle: The Greatest Time to Invest
Where does Mamoon believe the value will accrue in this wave of AI?
Where are many investors spending a lot of time but Mamoon believes is not worthy of that time?
Will scaling laws continue?
Have we ever seen an incumbent set spend like this incumbent class? How does that change the game for VCs?
Kleiner Perkins and Penn’s Endowment on India, loss ratios, and the rise of secondaries | E1919
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Todays show:
David Weisburd hosts Mamoon Hamid, Thomas Scriven, and Jason Calacanis to discuss India’s startup ecosystem (2:36), Carta’s 2018 startup class data (25:45), IPOs in the tech industry (41:18), and much more!
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Timestamps:
(0:00) David Weisburd intros Mamoon Hamid, Thomas Scriven, and Jason Calacanis
(2:36) India’s startup ecosystem
(8:16) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at http://www.vanta.com/twist
(9:08) Traction and support for Indian startups
(17:29) Sovereign wealth funds and their place in the ecosystem today
(24:15) DevSquad - Get an entire product team for the cost of one US developer plus 10% off at http://devsquad.com/twist
(25:45) Deep dive into Carta’s 2018 startup class data, loss ratios, and investment strategies
(40:04) Gelt. It’s time to take control over your taxes. Visit https://joingelt.com/twist now.
(41:18) The future of M&A and IPOs in the tech industry
(49:51) The rise of the secondary market
(1:07:09) Rapid-fire segment on recent investments
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Mentioned on the show:
https://www.harvey.ai
https://codeium.com
https://www.ambiencehealthcare.com
https://www.glean.com
https://tolt.io
https://www.argyle.build
https://www.podengine.ai
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Follow Mamoon:
X: https://twitter.com/mamoonha
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mamoonha
Check out: https://www.kleinerperkins.com/
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-scriven-435281/
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X: https://twitter.com/DWeisburd
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dweisburd
Check out: https://10xcapital.com
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X: https://twitter.com/jason
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jason
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
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#168 CEO & Founder Glean, Arvind Jain w/ Mamoon Hamid: New Playbook
Guest: Arvind Jain, Founder and CEO of Glean, and Mamoon Hamid, partner at Kleiner Perkins
“I’m an engineer, so I have doubts about everything,” says Glean founder and CEO Arvind Jain. Well ... almost everything. Since launching Glean in 2019, he has held to the belief that “all of us are going to have really powerful AI assistants” in the future. With a several-year lead on generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Glean has built a growing club of CIO fans. With the broad acceptance of AI over the past year, Arvind says, “the level of confidence is higher than ever before.”
In this episode, Arvind, Mamoon, and Joubin discuss golfer hats, ideas vs. execution, X1, energy audits, small towns in India, IIT, proving yourself, Rubrik, rejecting product-led growth, “workplace assistants,” CIO fans, internet ’94, Parker Conrad, and work as a hobby.
In this episode, we cover:
Arvind’s newfound fame (01:08)
The state of the AI business (03:42)
“Why now?” (06:05)
Building great products (09:16)
Company-building (11:27)
Arvind’s childhood (14:37)
Competition and hard work (16:44)
Leaving Google (18:46)
Glean vs. Rubrik (20:53)
The future of work (27:22)
“Holy shit” moments (29:25)
Finding positivity (32:51)
AI hype (34:31)
How to pick a venture capitalist (38:55)
Turning off (42:24)
Hiring and the meaning of “grit” (44:41)
Links:
Connect with ArvindLinkedIn
Connect with MamoonTwitter
LinkedIn
Connect with JoubinTwitter
LinkedIn
Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm
#162 CEO & Co-Founder Rippling, Parker Conrad w/ Mamoon Hamid: Compounding
Guests: Parker Conrad, CEO of Rippling, and Mamoon Hamid, partner at Kleiner Perkins
How long did it take for Parker Conrad to stop wanting revenge? “I’ll let you know when it switches over,” the Rippling CEO and co-founder jokes. He resigned from his last company, the buzzy HR unicorn Zenefits, in 2016 and then quickly realized that the company’s new leaders would never return it to its former glory. He still loved the problems he had been trying to solve, and launched Rippling because “there was an opportunity there, [and] if it works ... it’s going to be fundamentally and foundationally better as a product.” It worked. As of March, Rippling has been valued at more than $11 billion, more than double Zenefits’ peak.
In this episode, Parker, Mamoon, and Joubin discuss what happened at Zenefits, avoiding press coverage, FOMO and expectations, Paul Graham, fixing corporate insurance, Ryan Peterson’s “revenge portfolio,” CEO coaches, Mike Vernal, approving expenses, anecdata, and the Costco of SaaS.
In this episode, we cover:
How Parker and Mamoon met (00:56)
The Zenefits Series B (06:29)
“Stuck in a nightmare” (09:20)
Entrepreneurship is “soul-destroying” (12:46)
Parker’s first company, SigFig (17:17)
Starting a company for the right reasons (21:02)
Starting over after Zenefits (27:06)
Avenging Zenefits (31:57)
Rippling’s unusual Series A (38:40)
What it does well (43:13)
“Go and see” (46:35)
The compound startup (51:44)
Who Rippling is hiring and what “grit” means to Parker (01:00:39)
Links:
Connect with ParkerTwitter
LinkedIn
Connect with JoubinTwitter
LinkedIn
Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm
#150 CEO Box, Aaron Levie w/ Mamoon Hamid: Open For Business
Guest: Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, and Mamoon Hamid, partner at Kleiner Perkins
When he was a newly minted venture capitalist at USVP, Mamoon Hamid got a tip that he should meet a young entrepreneur named Aaron Levie, and fought for the right to invest in his cloud storage startup, Box. For years after that initial investment, the two men say, Box’s fate was precarious: “We could have died any day,” Mamoon says, and Aaron recalled several times he had to be talked “down from a ledge.” Today, they tell us how Box established itself as “open for business” — a concept Mamoon hounded Aaron with in the early years — and grew into success.
In this episode, Aaron, Mamoon, and Joubin discuss Box socks, authenticity at work, Josh Stein, living in the office, over-diligence, Google Platypus, the 2008 crash, nostalgia, everything is personal, the ten-person test, burnout, Dan Levin, ChatGPT, Parker Conrad, and Silicon Valley as “technology town.”
In this episode, we cover:
“Make mom proud, unless she’s evil” (01:59)
How Mamoon and Aaron met (04:38)
Mamoon’s first investment in Box (11:15)
Pausing the term sheet (16:08)
“We could have died any day” (19:01)
What is company-building? (23:23)
Open For Business (25:27)
Getting to cash flow positive (27:52)
Slow growth with no burn vs. fast growth, high burn (31:15)
Tough feedback (34:31)
Overcoming challenges around the Box IPO (36:31)
Growing as CEO (38:35)
The Apple Vision Pro and AI (44:15)
Investing in cutting-edge companies (49:15)
Using AI to re-juice growth (51:48)
How Aaron educates himself (54:22)
Business as a sport (57:14)
Who Box is hiring and what “grit” means to Aaron (01:00:44)
Links:
Connect with AaronTwitter
LinkedIn
Connect with MamoonTwitter
LinkedIn
Connect with JoubinTwitter
LinkedIn
Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm
20VC: Kleiner Perkins' Mamoon Hamid on The Strategy Behind The New $600m "Back To The Future" Fund, The Truth To Price Sensitivity at Series A & Why Venture Team Building Is Like Basketball Team Building
Mamoon Hamid is a Partner @ Kleiner Perkins, one of Silicon Valley's most prestigious venture firms counting Google, Airbnb, Amazon, Spotify, Square and many more $Bn companies among their portfolio. As for Mamoon, he has invested in and served on the boards of some of the most innovative software companies of recent times including Box, Figma, Intercom, Netskope, Slack and Yammer. Prior to joining Kleiner Perkins, Mamoon was a Co-Founder and General Partner at Social Capital and before that Mamoon was a Partner at U.S. Venture Partners (USVP), where he spent six years.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How did Mamoon make the transition from electrical engineer to VC and how did that translate to his role today as Partner @ KPCB?
2.) With Kleiner's new $600m early stage fund, Mamoon had a blank canvas, how does Mamoon think about portfolio construction from a bottom-up perspective? Why is that strategy optimal? How important does Mamoon believe it is for VCs to have a sector focus today? What does he mean when he says, "VCs need to have both majors and minors"?
3.) In today's heated early stage ecosystem, how does Mamoon analyse and reflect on his own price sensitivity? What deal has changed the way he thought about price and he either regrets not paying it or is thrilled he did pay it? How does Mamoon feel about the compressed fundraising timelines we are seeing today? Is this a concern?
4.) How does KPCB think about reserve allocation with the new $600m fund? How do they approach the opportunity cost of dollar deployment in terms of when to stop following on? How does the investment decision-making process change when comparing initial to reserve investment?
5.) Where does Mamoon believe that founders need the most help from their venture investors? Where does Mamoon see the commonalities in founders struggles to scale themselves with their role? What are the biggest mistakes Mamoon sees being made when initial traction has been hit and they start to scale? How can founders avoid these?
6.) How does Mamoon think about and address what it takes to build the most successful and efficient venture partnership? How does Mamoon compare this to a basketball team? Is venture really a team sport today? what are some of the biggest challenges in scaling venture firms over time?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Mamoon's Fave Book: Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
Mamoon's Most Recent Investment: Viz.ai
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Mamoon on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
20VC: Social Capital's Mamoon Hamid on Disrupting The Venture Model & Advancing Humanity By Solving The World's Toughest Problems
Mamoon Hamid is a Co-Founder and General Partner at Social Capital, a firm he co-founded in 2011 with the mission to transform society by using technology to solve the world's hardest problems. Mamoon leads the firm's private investing activities which focuses on building breakthrough healthcare, education, financial services, consumer and enterprise software companies. He currently sits on the board of companies that includes Slack, Intercom, Netskope and Greenhouse. Prior to starting Social Capital, Mamoon was a Partner at U.S. Venture Partners (USVP), where he led early stage investments in companies like Box and Yammer. Mamoon started his Silicon Valley career in 1997 at Xilinx where he spent six years in various engineering and marketing roles.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Mamoon made his way into VC and came to found Social with Chamath and Ted?
2.) How did Mamoon approach the team building aspect of Social? What did he look for in his partners and additional team members?
3.) According to Mamoon, what have been the inflection points in the incredible rising story of Social Capital? When has Mamoon's and the team's learnings really increased?
4.) What does Mamoon think of 'The Top 5 US Companies by Market Cap Being Tech Companies'? Why does he believe that there will be more from this cohort than any other cohort?
5.) What are Mamoon's expectations of growth, goals achieved at different stages of the company lifecycle etc? How does this differ according to the market he invests in?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Mamoon's Fave Book: Blue Ocean Strategy
Mamoon's Most Recent Investment: Front: The Invoice For Teams
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Mamoon on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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Saastr 005: Social Capital's Mamoon Hamid on Changing The Way We Work and The Rise of The Bottoms Up Sales Strategy
It is a huge honour to welcome, Mamoon Hamid, Partner @ Social Capital. One of the world's best performing funds with investments in the likes of Slack, Box, Intercom, Yammer and many more incredible companies. Prior to joining Social Mamoon was a Partner at US Venture Partners (USVP) and in today's show we discuss:
How Mamoon made his way into the world of investing and VC?
What were Mamoon's biggest takeaways from seeing the rocketship growth of the likes of Slack and Box? What were their challenges faced?
What is the distinct value proposition of Social over other VC funds? How do you look to differentiate?
What has been the effect of the rise of the bottoms up sales apprcach and what role will this play in the future for selling to enterprise clients?
Which company will be the first to make a million on Slack?
In a round we call the 60 Second Saastr, we also hear:
Biggest challenge facing Mamoon and Social Capital?
Mamoon's favourite SaaS resource?
Biggest piece of advice to SaaS founders?
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
Mamoon Hamid
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