Wiz's first investor breaks down Google's $32B acquisition
According to Index Ventures Partner Shardul Shah, cybersecurity startup Wiz sits “at the center of three tailwinds: AI, cloud, and security spend.” Those tailwinds powered what just became the largest venture-backed acquisition in history — Google's $32 billion deal, finalized after a declined 2024 offer, antitrust review on both sides of the Atlantic, and an extra $9 billion to sweeten the pot.
On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Anthony Ha, Rebecca Bellan, and Sean O'Kane sit down with Shah to dig into what made Wiz worth that price tag, and also cover more of the week's headlines.
Listen to the full episode to hear about:
Why a DOGE employee allegedly walked out of the Social Security Administration with a thumb drive full of personal data, and the questions it raises about access to sensitive systems
Taya and Sandbar, the latest startups betting voice is the next big AI interface — but do normal consumers agree?
Palmer Luckey raising for a retro gaming startup at a $1 billion valuation
Meta’s acquisition of Moltbook, the viral AI agent social network
The latest in the Anthropic vs. DoD saga, including tech workers at OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft signing their names on a legal brief in support of Anthropic
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:16 Did a DOGE employee steal your SSN?
02:53 AI note-taking wearables are back: Taya & Sandbar
09:18 Palmer Lucky's retro gaming startup ModRetro
13:39 Meta acquires AI agent social network Moltbot
18:54 Inside Google's $32B Wiz acquisition with Shardul Shah
28:41 Anthropic's lawsuit against the DoD
38:40 Outro
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20VC: Index's Shardul Shah on Why Market Size is a Trap | Biggest Lessons on Pricing from Leading Rounds in Wiz & Datadog | Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | How Index Makes Decisions and Why Growth & Early are the Same Investing Style
Shardul Shah is a Partner at Index Ventures and one of the greatest cyber security investors of the last two decades. Among his many wins, Shardul has led rounds in Datadog, Wiz, Duo Security, Coalition and more. Shardul is also the only Partner investing at Index to have worked in every single Index office from London, to SF, to NYC to Geneva. Prior to Index, Shardul worked with Summit Partners, focusing on healthcare and internet technologies.
In Today's Episode with Shardul Shah We Discuss:
1. Investing Lessons from Wiz and Datadog:
Why does Shardul believe that TAM (total addressable market) is BS?
Why does Shardul believe that every great deal will be expensive?
How does Shardul evaluate when to double down and concentrate capital vs when to let someone else come in and lead a round in an existing company?
How does Shardul think about when is the right time to sell a position in a company?
2. How the Best VCs Make Decisions:
How does Shardul and Index create an environment of truth-seeking together, that is optimised for the best decision-making to take place?
What are the biggest mistakes in how VCs make decisions today?
Why does Shardul believe that all first meetings should be 30 mins not 60 mins?
Why does Shardul believe it is so much harder to make investment decisions when partnerships are remote? What is better remote?
3. The Core Pillars of Venture: Sourcing, Selecting, Securing and Servicing:
Which one does Shardul believe he is best at? What is he worst at?
Does Shardul believe with the downturn we have moved into a world of selection and not just winning every new deal?
Does Shardul believe that VCs provide any value? What are the biggest misnomers when it comes to "VC value add"?
4. Lessons from the Best Investors in the World:
Who is the best board member that Shardul sits on a board with?
What has Shardul learned from Gili Raanan and Doug Leone on being a good board member?
What have been some of Shardul's biggest investing lessons from Danny Rimer?
Why does Shardul hate benchmarks when it comes to investing?
Saastr 004: Index's Shardul Shah on Why Reducing Time Distance To Value Is So Important and How To Sell To CSO's Effectively
I am thrilled to welcome, Shardul Shah, Partner @ Index Ventures to the show today. Shardul is the sole member of the Index team to have worked in all Index's offices around the world in Geneva, London and SF. Now in SF, Shardul focuses on security, software and infrastructure with investments in the likes of Squarespace, DropBox and Adaloom, just to name a few.
Discussed In Today's Show:
How Shardul made his unorthodox approach into investing?
What Shardul really looks for in early stage SaaS products when investing?
Why is reducing time distance to value so important for a SaaS product?
How can startups effectively sell to CSO's in this new wave of cyber security?
What are the risks and flaws of the open source community?
How can enterprise SaaS products create true customer stickiness?
In a round we call the 60 Second Saastr, we also hear:
What is Shardul most concerned about in the SaaS space?
Shardul's favourite SaaS resource:
Which public markets SaaS companies is Shardul most impressed with?
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
Shardul Shah