The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
1,144 episodes - English - Latest episode: 29 days ago - ★★★★ - 292 ratingsThe Twenty Minute VC (20VC) interviews the world's greatest venture capitalists with prior guests including Sequoia's Doug Leone and Benchmark's Bill Gurley. Once per week, 20VC Host, Harry Stebbings is also joined by one of the great founders of our time with prior founder episodes from Spotify's Daniel Ek, Linkedin's Reid Hoffman, and Snowflake's Frank Slootman.
If you would like to see more of The Twenty Minute VC (20VC), head to www.20vc.com for more information on the podcast, show notes, resources and more.
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Episodes
FF 016: Chad Fowler, CTO @ Wunderlist, App Of The Year 2013
October 09, 2015 09:37 - 26 minutes - 24 MBTo win a signed copy of Venture Deals by Brad Feld, click the link below and like our Facebook page and you will be entered into the competition. https://www.facebook.com/The-Twenty-Minute-VC-769935093077190/timeline/ Chad Fowler is the CTO at 6Wunderkinder (acquired by Microsoft), the company behind the wildly successful Wunderlist, previously cited by Michael Treskow and Mattias Ljungman on the show as their must have productivity app. Prior to 6Wunderkinder, Chad was the Senior VP of tec...
20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital
October 07, 2015 09:19 - 20 minutes - 18.5 MBFor your chance to win a signed copy of Venture Deals by previous guest and legend, Brad Feld all you have to do is click the Click To Tweet Link here: http://ctt.ec/Q41ZG Kamal Ravikant is an absolute hero to me after I read his incredible best selling book, Love Yourself Like Like Your Life Depends On It. As for an intro to Kamal, it goes without saying that he has worked with some of the best people in Silicon Valley and is a true tech and investing icon, but he has also trekked to one o...
20 VC 077: PART 1: Kamal Ravikant: 'I'm Not Your Traditional VC'
October 05, 2015 09:14 - 20 minutes - 19.3 MBFor your chance to win a signed copy of Venture Deals by previous guest and legend, Brad Feld all you have to do is click the Click To Tweet Link here: http://ctt.ec/Q41ZG Kamal Ravikant is an absolute hero to me after I read his incredible best selling book, Love Yourself Like Like Your Life Depends On It. As for an intro to Kamal, it goes without saying that he has worked with some of the best people in Silicon Valley and is a true tech and investing icon, but he has also trekked to on...
FF 015: Y COMBINATOR WEEK: Eric Glyman, Co-Founder & CEO @ Paribus
October 02, 2015 08:56 - 25 minutes - 23.5 MBEric Glyman, Co-Founder and CEO @ Paribus (Y Combinator S15), the service which scans your inbox for receipts and automatically saves you money when the items you bought drop in price. Stores often guarantee that you will get the lowest prices. But they don’t follow through unless you work for it. Paribus does the work for you. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) What was Eric's career before Paribus and what was his a-ha moment was for the idea? 2.) How did Eric do things differently ...
20 VC 076: Y COMBINATOR WEEK: Aaron Harris, Partner @ YC
September 30, 2015 09:51 - 24 minutes - 22.6 MBAaron Harris is a Partner at Y Combinator and also newly one of my favourite podcast hosts with his brilliant show, Startup School Radio, for all startup lovers it is a must listen. Prior to YC, Aaron was cofounder of Sequoia backed Tutorspree, which was funded by Y Combinator in 2011. Before Tutorspree he worked at Bridgewater Associates, where he managed product and operations for an analytics group. He also writes an awesome blog which can be found here! In Today's Episode You Will Learn...
20 VC 075: Y COMBINATOR WEEK: Kirsty Nathoo, CFO @ Y Combinator
September 28, 2015 09:47 - 27 minutes - 25.5 MBKirsty Nathoo is the CFO of Y Combinator. As CFO, she holds the keys to the kingdom – literally. Not only does she control and manage Y Combinator’s internal finances, from paying bills to helping organize demo days to actually making sure Y Combinator’s money is wired to startups from the proper accounts; but she helps YC startups coordinate outside financings, tax issues, incorporation and other fiscal matters. She’s the financial brains behind the entire operation, with YC partner Harj Ta...
FF 014: Making Great Founders, Idea Creation and The First 100 Days Of A Startup with Alice Bentinck, Co-Founder @ Entrepreneur First
September 25, 2015 10:36 - 20 minutes - 19.2 MBAlice Bentinck is Co-Founder at Entrepreneurs First, the accelerator program that puts founders first! Previously, Alice worked at prestigious consultancy firm McKinsey & Co, before turning down an offer from Google to found Entrepreneur First alongside Matt. She taught herself to code, and founded Code First Girls in 2013 to help more women get into tech. She sits on the board of Sherry Coutu's Founders4Schools, is on Imperial College London's Department of Computing Industrial Liaison Boar...
20 VC 074: The Future of Healthcare with Bob Kocher, Partner @ Venrock
September 23, 2015 10:56 - 19 minutes - 17.9 MBBob Kocher is a Partner at Venrock and focuses on healthcare IT and services investments. He currently serves on the Boards of Aledade and Jiff, and is a Board Observer at Grand Rounds and Doctor on Demand. Prior to Venrock, Bob served in the Obama Administration as Special Assistant to the President for Healthcare and Economic Policy on the National Economic Council. In the Obama Administration, Bob was one of the shapers of the Affordable Care Act. Before the White House, Bob was a Partner...
20 VC 073: Life Inside Accel Partners with Michael Treskow @ Accel
September 21, 2015 07:38 - 23 minutes - 22.1 MBMichael Treskow is a VC @ Accel Partners, one of the world's most successful venture firms having funded the likes of Facebook, Dropbox, Spotify, Etsy and many more. At Accel, Michael is responsible for the firm’s investments in SpaceApe, a mobile games developer, and GoCardless, an online direct debt provider. Michael was also instrumental in Accel's investments and ongoing work with Funding Circle, Packlink, Qubit, Semmle, Trufa and WorldRemit. Prior to Accel, Michael focused on early-sta...
FF 013: 'Make Bets And Believe In What You Are Doing' with James Borow @ Shift & Brand Networks
September 18, 2015 11:13 - 29 minutes - 27.2 MBJames Borow is Chief Product Officer at Brand Networks which delivers social marketing and advertising to 650 enterprise customers, following their acquisition of Shift where James was CEO and Co-Founder and led the business to being the No 1 marketing software company for social advertisers with clients such as Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook. James was named a semi-finalist for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur Of The Year Award in 2014, and is a thought leader in digital advertising, with artic...
20 VC 072: Super Angel, Fabrice Grinda: The Future of Startup Investing
September 16, 2015 10:43 - 31 minutes - 29 MBFabrice Grinda is among the world’s leading Internet entrepreneurs and investors with over $300 million in exits and 200 angel investments including the likes of Alibaba, LendingClub and BrightRoll. Fabrice is currently investing in startups and building companies through FJ Labs, which he cofounded with business partner Jose Marin. Fabrice is also co-founder and executive chairman of Beepi, a next generation used car marketplace which recently raised $60 million in series B funding. Prior ...
20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital
September 14, 2015 10:58 - 29 minutes - 26.7 MBNicholas Chirls is the Founder and Partner @ Notation Capital, one of New York's genuine pre-seed funds investing in pre-growth startups with huge potential. Prior to Notation, Nichoas was Head of Investment at Betaworks, leading investments in companies such as Electric Objects, Estimote, URX, Namo Media (acquired by Twitter) and Grand St. (acquired by Etsy). If you would like to email Nick, his email is [email protected] In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Nick made his...
20 VC 070: Do Investors in California Outperform The Rest of The World with Eric ver Ploeg @ Recursive Capital
September 09, 2015 11:25 - 29 minutes - 27.3 MBEric ver Ploeg has sat on both sides of the table as an entrepreneur and a VC. Eric started his career as an entrepreneur with the founding of Adknowledge, the 1st internet ad serving company, which was sold for $193m. He then went on to Angara, a Kleiner Perkins backed startup which led to his move into venture with VantagePoint, where he led VantagePoint's investment activities in the mobile arena, leading over $160m in investments. Eric is also a fantastic writer and his articles can be f...
20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups
September 07, 2015 10:18 - 26 minutes - 23.9 MBJeff 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 $...
FF 012: Acquired by Microsoft for $200m with Javier Soltero @ Microsoft
September 06, 2015 19:26 - 29 minutes - 27.4 MBJavier Soltero is Corporate Vice President of Outlook @ Microsoft. This position arose due to Javier's startup, Acompli, being acquired by Microsoft for $200m in 2014. Prior to Acompli, Javier spent a year at Redpoint Ventures, where he assisted in helping the firm extend their reach into both enterprise and mobile markets. However, Javier's entrepreneurial career did not start with Acompli, as he co-founded Hyperic, which he bought for $1 and within 5 years turned into a $10m+ revenue gener...
FF 011: 'The Savviest Investors Don't Ask What If' with Ben Nader, CEO & Founder @ Butterfleye
September 04, 2015 10:49 - 26 minutes - 24.1 MBBen Nader is Founder and CEO at Butterfleye, the most advanced wireless home monitoring system. In other words, Google Nest meets Dropcam. Butterfleye's investors include some of the biggest and most prominent names in the industry including our friends and past guests Brad Feld and Jason Calacanis. Butterfleye currently have a campaign on Indiegogo, which you can support here! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Ben come up with Butterfleye? 2.) How does Butterfleye differe...
20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital
September 02, 2015 11:03 - 29 minutes - 26.9 MBSean Seton-Rogers is a founding Partner at PROfounders Capital, a venture capital fund for entrepreneurs powered by entrepreneurs. Their investors and principals number some of the best-known players within the digital media space -- people who have built some of Europe's most successful companies. Prior to PROfounders, Sean has been investing in technology companies across both the US and Europe, when he was at both Balderton Capital and Commonwealth Capital Ventures in Boston. In addition ...
20 VC 067: Scaling Startups Into Unicorns with Atomico's Mattias Ljungman and Carolina Brochado
August 31, 2015 10:39 - 28 minutes - 26.5 MBMattias launched Atomico in 2006 alongside Niklas Zennström. In that time, Mattias has been involved with exits including Supercell (sold a majority stake to SoftBank), 6Wunderkinder (acquired by Microsoft in 2015), The Climate Corporation (acquired by Monsanto for $1.1B in 2013), Xobni (acquired by Yahoo! in 2013). Mattias works closely with a number of portfolio companies on their expansion, including Truecaller, Klarna, Hailo, and ChemistDirect. Carolina is Vice President @ Atomico, wor...
FF 010: Becoming Europe's Hottest Startup with Carl Waldekranz, Co-Founder and CEO @ Tictail
August 28, 2015 09:12 - 26 minutes - 24.2 MBCarl Waldekranz is the CEO and co-founder of Tictail. With the vision of creating the worlds most used and loved e-commerce platform Tictail has been called the Tumblr of e-commerce and been celebrated as one of Europe's hottest startups. The vibrant community now hosts more than 85,000 stores on their service. Due to this phenomenal growth Tictail recently closed a $22m Series B from Balderton, Acton, Thrive and Creandum. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) What were Carl's entrepreneu...
20 VC 066: FOUNDRY GROUP WEEK 1: Seth Levine: 'VC Is Not A Scalable Business'
August 26, 2015 12:20 - 27 minutes - 25.2 MBSeth Levine is one of the most successful VCs on the planet having Co-Founded Foundry Group, Seth has made investments in the likes of Fitbit (IPO), Admeld (acquired by Google), Zynga (IPO) and Gnip (acquired by Twitter). The Foundry Group now has 5 funds, 4 early stage and 1 growth fund, totalling over $1bn in assets. Prior to Foundry Group, Seth started his career in venture with Mobius Venture Capital and lead the IPO of FirstWorld in 2000. Seth writes an awesome blog on technology, ventu...
20 VC 065: FOUNDRY GROUP WEEK 1: Brad Feld: Founders Should Be Obsessed, Passion Belongs In The Bedroom
August 24, 2015 10:29 - 31 minutes - 28.5 MBBrad Feld is one of the world's leading VCs having Co-Founded Foundry Group, Brad has made investments in the likes of Zynga, Makerbot and Fitbit, just to name a few. Brad is also Co-Founder of Techstars, one of the world's most prominent startup accelerators, whose portfolio companies have raised over $1.3bn in funding. If that wasn't enough Brad is also a best selling author having co-athoured Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC, alongside Dick Costolo and Startup Communi...
FF 009: How To Leverage Your Connections To Grow Your Business with Sarah Schupp, Founder & CEO @ University Parent
August 21, 2015 12:08 - 25 minutes - 23.5 MBSarah Schupp is the CEO and founder of UniversityParent. UniversityParent is the #1 site for college parents to find everything they need to help their children succeed. The company, which began with a single print guide for the University of Colorado Boulder, now prints parent guides for more than two hundred colleges, features information for 3,000 colleges and universities on its website, and distributes a weekly e-newsletter. In May 2014, UniversityParent celebrated its 10th anniversary ...
20 VC 064: Finding Exceptional People with Big Ideas with Nick Beim, Partner @ Venrock
August 19, 2015 11:26 - 29 minutes - 27 MBNick Beim is a Partner @ Venrock where he focuses on internet, mobile, SaaS, big data and fintech investments. Nick blogs on the economics of innovation at www.nickbeim.com. Nick led the initial venture investments in a number of pioneering consumer internet companies including the Gilt Groupe, and Care.com (IPO). He also led the initial investments in a number of today’s leading big data innovators including Dataminr and Intent Media. Prior to joining Venrock, Nick was a General Partner at ...
20 VC 063: What It Takes To Standout In A Crowded Market with Ezra Galston @ Chicago Ventures
August 17, 2015 12:12 - 28 minutes - 25.8 MBEzra Galston is a VC @ Chicago Ventures, where he focuses on consumer facing and marketing tech investments and is actively involved with Blitsy, BloomNation, Kapow Events, Luxury Garage Sale, Shiftgig, SpotHero, and Zipments. Ezra’s thoughts on startups, have been published in the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, VentureBeat and Re/code. Prior to Chicago Ventures, Ezra was a Young Entrepreneur at Foundation Capital. Before business school, Ezra served as the Director of Marketing for CardRu...
FF 08: Pierre Valade, CEO @ Sunrise on Being Acquired By Microsoft for $100m and Building Beautiful Products
August 14, 2015 12:45 - 23 minutes - 21.9 MBPierre Valade is Co-Founder and CEO @ Sunrise, the beautiful calendar app, acquired by Microsoft for $100m in February 2015, where he now works on Outlook Mobile for Microsoft. Prior to Sunrise, Pierre worked as a UX designer @ Foursquare following a successful hackathon in which he built an app in 6 hours, called Agora. Agora impressed Foursquare Founder, Dennis Crowley to the extent that Pierre was hired in the same month. As a result of Pierre's success he was named on the Innovators Unde...
20 VC 062: Shaking Up London's VC Scene with Fede Pirzio-Biroli, Founder @ Playfair Capital
August 12, 2015 13:41 - 26 minutes - 24.4 MBFede Pirzio-Biroli is Founder @ Playfair Capital, a leading investor in seed level, technology based startups. Fede founded Playfair Capital from his first investment in December of 2010 and the portfolio quickly grew to 20 investments by the end of 2012, including the likes of Duedil, AppearHere and On Device Research. During this period, Fede was an angel in residence at White Bear Yard. After working closely with Passion Capital, he built the Playfair Capital team and moved into Warner Ya...
20 VC 061: Roxanne Varza on Pitching A VC in 10 Minutes and Maximising Media Exposure For Your Startup
August 10, 2015 12:17 - 30 minutes - 35.2 MBRoxanne Varza is currently the startup lead for Microsoft in France, running both Microsoft Ventures Paris and Bizspark. Prior to Microsoft, Roxanne was Editor of TechCrunch France and has been a guest author for the likes of The Telegraph and Business Insider. Roxanne is also the Co-Founder of Tech.eu, one of the few publications to cover the European tech industry as a whole, with the brilliant Robin Wauters. If that wasn't enough Roxanne is also the Co-Founder of Girls In Tech both in Par...
FF 007: Founding Europe's Largest Trading App with Nick Bortot, Founder @ Bux
August 07, 2015 12:37 - 22 minutes - 25.4 MBNick Bortot is the Founder & CEO at Bux, Europe's largest mobile trading platform with an incredible 175,000 active users. In his former life he was one of the driving forces behind the Dutch market leader in online brokerage, BinckBank. There he held several commercial positions before he was elected member of the executive board. After having spent five years in the boardroom, Nick started dreaming about a new company that would make the financial markets both fun and exciting. This dream ...
20 VC 060: 12 Acquisitions, $1bn In Exits, Mike Jones, Former MySpace CEO on Life At Science Inc.
August 05, 2015 13:51 - 21 minutes - 19.8 MBMike Jones is the Founder and CEO at Science Inc. a disruptive media, marketing and commerce company that creates, invests, acquires and scales successful digital businesses. Their incredible portfolio includes the likes of Medium, DollarShaveClub and DogVacay and their leadership is responsible for an astonishing 12 acquisitions and over $1bn in exits. Prior to Science Inc, Mike was the CEO at Myspace, where he was responsible for the relaunch, one of the most high-profile turn-around chall...
20 VC 059: How To Approach VCs with Arteen Arabshahi, VC @ Karlin Ventures
August 03, 2015 11:50 - 29 minutes - 27.3 MBArteen Arabshahi is a VC at Karlin Ventures, where he specialises in enterprise software, commerce platforms, and marketplaces. Prior to Karlin Ventures, Arteen spearheaded the launch of Built In LA, an online community for digital entrepreneurs and innovators. However, his passion for startups flourished while helping run operations at Excelerate Labs, now Techstars Chicago. In today's incredible interview we delve into the best strategies for contacting any VC you want, how to make the app...
FF 006: Acquired by Amazon, CEO @ Digg, EIR @ a16z and now Founder @ Pro.com with Matt Williams
July 31, 2015 11:55 - 22 minutes - 21.1 MBMatt Williams is Founder and CEO of Pro.com. Prior to Pro.com, Matt served as entrepreneur-in-residence at Andreessen Horowitz, following his time at Digg where he led the complete overhaul of Digg which he joined as CEO in 2010 to rebuild the site from the ground up and contributed to its successful acquisition by Betaworks in 2012. Before Digg, Matt spent 12 years at Amazon where he managed Amazon’s Auctions and Marketplace, Community and Cross Merchandising, Tech Alliances, Web Store, and...
20 VC 058: 10 Key Traits To Be A Successful Founder with David Wu, General Partner @ Maveron
July 29, 2015 10:49 - 23 minutes - 27.2 MBDavid Wu is a General Partner at Maveron, which he joined in 2012 to help identify new investments in Web companies that have the potential to become leading consumer brands. He sourced and led Maveron's investment, Eargo and Darby Smart, also serving on their board. David is very much founder focussed and you’ll often find him coaching entrepreneurs at top Bay Area incubators such as Y Combinator, AngelPad, 500 Startups, and Stanford’s StartX and was previously EIR at Redpoint Ventures. His...
20 VC 057: The Investor Checklist with Nicolas Wittenborn, VC @ Point Nine Capital
July 27, 2015 08:48 - 25 minutes - 29 MBDid you know: The name Point Nine Capital originates from the 0.9 version of a product that is early but has great potential. Nicolas Wittenborn is a VC at Point Nine Capital, one of the leading seed funds in Europe. Prior to Point Nine, Nicolas worked for the Team Europe Seed Fund. You can follow Nicolas' incredible blog here, which include my favourite ever blog post, outlining the exemplar pitch deck that startups should follow! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: How Nicolas made the m...
Founding WIRED 2014's Winner, with Mutaz Qubbaj, Founder @ Squirrel
July 24, 2015 13:28 - 21 minutes - 20.2 MBMutaz Qubbaj is Founder @ Squirrel, a financial wellbeing platform that allows employees to regain control of their financial lives. Mutual has celebrated much recent success with Squirrel having been named winner of WIRED 2014 and Pitch @ The Palace. Mutaz is also an expert on all things accelerator having been an alum at Barclays Techstars London with Squirrel, which you may remember from our interview with Greg Rogers, where Greg named Squirrel the next company to disrupt an industry. P...
20 VC 056: The Life Cycle of Startups with Guy Turner, Partner @ Hyde Park Venture Partners
July 22, 2015 12:35 - 23 minutes - 21.6 MBQuote of the Day: 'Invest in people who do what they say they are going to do and have done what they said they would do'. Guy Turner, 20VC Guy Turner is a Partner at Hyde Park Venture Partners where he focuses on fast growing companies run by ambitious entrepreneurs with disruptive ideas. All of his incredible findings can be found through his blog at vcwithme.co. Guy joined Hyde Park Venture Partners in 2011 from Boston Consulting Group where he focused on corporate strategy across a vari...
20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures
July 20, 2015 13:26 - 24 minutes - 22.7 MBQuote of the Day: 'Advisors are the most crucial element to success for the young generation'. Jonathon Triest, 20 Min VC Jonathon Triest is the Founder and Managing Partner of Ludlow Ventures and Sandwich Fund. Prior to launching Ludlow, Jonathon worked as creative director for New York’s Discovery Productions. He founded and operated Triest Group, a design firm with a deep UI/UX focus. In addition to his role at Ludlow, Jonathon is a Kauffman Fellow and a mentor at numerous technology acc...
Founders Friday 004: Life As A Non-Technical Co-Founder with Will Sacks, The Fertility King @ Kindara
July 17, 2015 13:12 - 21 minutes - 24.4 MBWill Sacks is Co-Founder and CEO at Kindara, the fertility awareness app that provides tools to understand fertility and be in control of their own body. Kindara has achieved phenomenal success having significant press in the likes of Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, New York Times and Forbes. Their first product Kindara Fertility for iPhone has been ranked #1 on the App Store Medical Charts. In this incredibly diverse conversation our talk ranges from wire framing and programming to vasectomies ...
20 VC 055: David Pakman @ Venrock on The Future Of The Music Industry
July 15, 2015 11:29 - 20 minutes - 23.1 MBQuote of the Day: 'A great entrepreneur has the ability to bend the world to their will'. David Pakman, 20VC David Pakman is a Partner at Venrock, having spent the past 12 years as an internet entrepreneur. This includes David's appointment as CEO of eMusic, the world’s leading digital retailer of independent music, second only to iTunes. Prior to joining eMusic, David co-founded Myplay in 1999, which he later sold, in 2001, to Bertelsmann’s ecommerce Group. Before Myplay, he was Vice Presi...
20 VC 053: Inside Union Square Ventures with Jonathan Libov @ Union Square Ventures
July 13, 2015 15:01 - 29 minutes - 33.6 MBQuote of the Day: 'Keep an open mind from an early age'. Jonathan Libov, 20VC Jonathan Libov joined the investment team at Union Square Ventures in September of 2014. Jonathan hails from New York but has lived for the last few years in Tel Aviv, where he most recently worked as a Product Manager at Appsfire. He's a graduate of Vassar College with a degree in Cognitive Science and began his career in neuroscience research. He designs and codes, with Fifty among his side projects. In Today's...
Founders Friday 003: 2m users, $2m Seed Round, 220,000 Instagram Followers with Phil Jacobson, Founder @ PumpUp
July 10, 2015 13:13 - 20 minutes - 19.1 MBPhil Jacobson is Co-Founder At PumpUp, a community for healthy and active living, with over 2m users. Phil leads the operations, finance, marketing, business development and external relations for PumpUp, with great success having accumulated over 220,000 Instagram followers! Prior to PumpUp, Phil held brand management positions at Unilever and PepsiCo. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: How Phil started PumpUp? How Phil got 1,500 downloads in day one? What marketing strategies are PumpU...
20 VC 052: How To Make The Leap From Seed To Series A with Ari Helgason @ Dawn Capital
July 08, 2015 15:30 - 20 minutes - 18.8 MBAri Helgason is a VC at Dawn Capital in London and a former entrepreneur with operational experience in both London and New York. Prior to Dawn, Ari founded SaaS sales and workflow management system World on a Hanger and ecommerce clothing marketplace Fabricly.com. More recently, he launched ecommerce sites for fashion and luxury brands in London and New York. Ari is an alumnus of the Y Combinator startup accelerator and he regularly visits Silicon Valley where he has extensive relationships...
20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures
July 06, 2015 14:14 - 18 minutes - 16.9 MBAlessandra Sollberger is a VC at Mosaic Ventures, a new Silicon Valley style venture firm based in London, focussing on Series A rounds. Alessandra previously worked in private equity at Blackstone, covering sectors ranging from consumer brands to software. Prior to that, she worked in startups in the US and Europe and in M&A at Goldman Sachs. She is also the founder of Bright Mentors, an edtech non-profit teaching coding and science in secondary schools through a network of technology profe...
Founders Friday 002: Balderton's James Wise interviews 20VC Founder, Harry Stebbings
July 03, 2015 11:39 - 21 minutes - 25.1 MBToday is a very special show as James Wise, Principal at Balderton Capital turns the tables on Host of The Twenty Minute VC, Harry Stebbings. In today's brilliant interview by James we delve into what has led to Harry's interest in the VC industry, why did Harry start The 20 Minute VC, how does Harry identify guests to interview, how does he approach those guests, how has Harry found his first experience in the venture industry, what has surpassed Harry about the VC industry, what traits has...
20 VC 050: Starting, Building and Selling in SaaS with the King of SaaS, Jason Lemkin, Managing Director @ Storm Ventures
July 01, 2015 11:46 - 23 minutes - 21.5 MBJason Lemkin is Managing Director at Storm Ventures focussing on early stage SaaS and enterprise startups. Jason is an acknowledged thought leader in SaaS through his creation of the SaaStr community, connecting thousands of SaaS entrepreneurs and generating upwards of 1,000,000 views a month around core SaaS topics, with a particular focus on accelerating revenue and early-stage SaaS sales and marketing. Prior to Storm, Jason served as CEO and co-founder of Storm Ventures-backed EchoSign, t...
20 VC 049: VC is Getting Younger with Spencer Lazar @ General Catalyst Partners
June 29, 2015 13:00 - 26 minutes - 30.9 MBSpencer Lazar is a Principal at General Catalyst Partners, based in New York City. He focuses on early stage software & internet investments, with a particular interest in online marketplaces, mobile applications, web services, and enterprise IT. Spencer was previously the cofounder of Spontaneously, Inc - an iOS development studio. Prior to that he was an early stage software & internet investor at Accel in London, where he sourced and worked with companies including Hailo, Birchbox, Bonobo...
Founder's Friday 001: How to Create Great Company Culture with Anand Sanwal, Founder @ CB Insights
June 26, 2015 14:33 - 24 minutes - 27.9 MBAnand Sanwal is the CEO and Co-Founder of CB Insights. Specifically, CB Insights tracks financing trends and private companies in the healthcare, industrial, technology, software, energy & utilities, renewable, internet and mobile industries. CB Insights works primarily with venture capital, private equity, angel investors, corporate development, corporate strategy and family offices. Formerly, Sanwal was the Vice President at American Express. Sanwal was responsible for managing three prima...
20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech
June 24, 2015 11:51 - 22 minutes - 20.5 MBQuote of the Day: "Capital is a crappy differentiator". Dustin Dolginow Christian Claussen is a Managing Partner with Ventech, a VC firm with offices in Munich and Paris. He has 16 years of experience investing in innovation and he leads Ventech investment activities in the German-speaking regions of Europe. He serves as a board member for Picanova and TV Smiles. In today's amazing episode with Christian we learn: Which value adds are most important for founders to look for? How can Foun...
20 VC 047: 4 Ways Investors Find Great Startups with Rob Moffat, Principal @ Balderton Capital
June 22, 2015 12:30 - 23 minutes - 27.5 MBRob Moffat is Principal at Balderton Capital, one of London's leading VC firms. At Balderton Rob specialises in Fintech, Martech, Gaming and Marketplaces. Rob is currently a board director or observer with six portfolio companies: Qubit, Wooga, Housetrip, Carwow, Rentify and Nutmeg. Other investments Rob has been involved with at Balderton include Citymapper, Top10, Scoot and Archify. Prior to joining Balderton Rob worked for Google in London, as a Manager in the European Strategy and Operat...
20 VC 046: How VCs Evaluate Investment Opportunities with Alan Chiu, Partner @ XSeed Capital
June 18, 2015 13:58 - 20 minutes - 24 MBAlan Chiu is a Partner at XSeed Capital, with a strong background in enterprise software and data storage. Alan is currently Vice President for Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs, an alumni association that seeks to strengthen Stanford’s startup community by fostering relationships among entrepreneurs and alumni investors. Prior to XSeed, Alan was previously Director of Product Management at Bycast (acquired by NetApp), and was engineering manager at Creo, which was acquired by Kodak for $1B in...
20 VC 045: From Idea to Pitch with Alan Jones, Founding Investor @ Startmate
June 15, 2015 14:28 - 25 minutes - 28.8 MBAlan Jones is Chief Growth Hacker at Bluechilli, who have set the incredible goal of building 100 startups by 2016! Alan is also Founding Investor and Mentor at Startmate, an Australian Y Combinator style accelerator. If that wasn't enough Alan also invests and advises through Blackbird Ventures, Pollenizer and Startmate. In Today's Amazing Discussion with Alan We Discover: What you should do when you have a great idea? How to validate a market? How to figure out if it is a viable busine...