20VC: SPACs. What Are They? Why Now? How Do They Change The Venture Landscape? Are They Better Than IPOs & Direct Listings? How Should Founders Think About Them? Kevin Hartz & Troy Steckenrider @ A*

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Episode: 20VC: SPACs. What Are They? Why Now? How Do They Change The Venture Landscape? Are They Better Than IPOs & Direct Listings? How Should Founders Think About Them? Kevin Hartz & Troy Steckenrider @ A*
Pub date: 2020-08-31


Podcast Notes Key Takeaways “We see this SPAC phenomenon not as a flash in the pan, not as a quick up and down…but really an enduring vehicle to bring our innovation companies to market and we find that to be extremely exciting”– Troy Steckenrider What is a SPAC?A SPAC is a pool of capital that is used to invest in a private company and help them go public. The capital is raised on the public markets through a traditional IPO and goes into a bank where it is held for up to two years. During that 2-year time, the SPAC management team has an opportunity to go find a partner company, negotiate a deal with them, and take them public. What are the benefits of a SPAC?From the private company’s perspective, it’s an easier path to get into the public marketsFrom the SPAC’s perspective, it’s a way to invest in a company before it IPOs“A company with a strong management team with a clear competitive advantage in an unusual market will always find great investors and draw those great investors” – Kevin Hartz

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Kevin Hartz is Co-Founder & Partner @ A*, a newly listed special acquisition company which raised $200M to acquire and take public a tech startup. Kevin is also the Co-Founder, former CEO, and Chairman Eventbrite (NYSE: EB). Before Eventbrite, Kevin was the Co-Founder & former CEO of online money transfer service, Xoom (acquired by PayPal for $1.1B). Kevin is also one of the most successful early-stage investors in the business with a portfolio including the likes of Airbnb (Seed, Series A), Uber (Series B), Pinterest (Seed, Series A), Trulia (first check) and PayPal (Seed).

Troy Steckenrider is Kevin's co-founder and Partner @ A*. Prior to A*, Troy was COO @ ZeroDown changing the landscape for homeownership with $136M in funding. Before ZeroDown, Troy spent 5 years at Opendoor as Director of Capital Markets. Before that hyper-growth experience at Opendoor, Troy enjoyed roles at both Bain Private Equity and McKinsey.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Troy and Kevin came together to co-found A*? What is a SPAC? What are Kevin and Troy looking to achieve with the SPAC?

2.) What does Kevin believe are the primary drivers for the rise in SPAC's over the last few years? How will they change the structure of both the VC and startup industry? How will the SPAC landscape evolve over the next few years? What is the biggest challenge they face?

3.) Why does Kevin believe that the fee structure for SPACs is egregious? How would they like to change the incentive structure? How does the timeline for a SPAC transaction compare to that of an IPO? How does the fee structure compare when comparing SPACs to banks in IPOs?

4.) Why did Kevin and Troy choose $200M for the right size for their first SPAC? How does the size of the SPAC determine the type of company the SPAC will merge with? What are Kevin and Troy looking for in their partner company?

5.) What does the fundraising process look like for a SPAC? How do SPAC sponsors deal with the challenge that LPs call pull out if they do not like the proposed partner deal? When evaluating SPACs, what do investors look to invest because of? What makes A* special?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Troy’s Fave Book: Churchill: Walking with Destiny

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