The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The 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.
Episodes
AGENDA:
00:00 – $400B in AI CapEx: Rational Investment or Madness?
05:00 – Figma's IPO: Rule of 80, $1.5B in cash, 40% margins. Unreal.
08:00 – Adobe Screwed the Deal—Should They Have Just Bought Canva?
16:00 – Pay-to-Play Deals: Heroic Hail Mary or Guaranteed Write-Off?
21:30 – How Index Is Returning $3.5...
Philipp Freise is Co-Head of European Private Equity at KKR, where he manages the largest private fund in Europe with $8BN in the latest fund. Philip has led KKR's investments in FGS Global, Superstruct, Axel Springer SE, BMG Rights Management, Fotolia, GetYourGuide, GfK SE, Leonine, Mediawan SAS, Scout24 Switzerland and Trainline. Previously, Philip worked at McKinsey & Company in and co-founded Berlin-based VC firm V...
Kim Graves is GM, Americas at Notion, where she oversees all Sales and Customer Success efforts across the region. She brings extensive experience in building and scaling high-performing sales organizations, most notably at Slack where she helped grow revenue from $6M to over $1.5B. In addition to her operational role, Kim serves as a founding partner at 20SALES, a GTM-focused VC firm, where she advises early-stage com...
Agenda:
04:21 - The Meta Acquisition Bombshell: Nat Friedman & Daniel Gross Join Facebook?!
06:00 - Facebook’s $100 Billion Gamble: Can Zuck Buy the Future?
09:27 - The “Magic Room” Theory: Why Only Insiders Get Billion-Dollar Paydays
11:27 - Is Loyalty Dead in Silicon Valley? The Great Talent Exodus
16:00 - Harvey’s $5 Billion Valuation: Genius or Bubble...
Johannes Reck is the Founder and CEO of GetYourGuide, the $2BN company that started with a holiday to China and nothing to do. For the first two years, GetYourGuide received only 5 bookings. Today the platform is worth $2BN. They have raised from some of the best, including an amazing story with Masa Son and Softbank.
In Today’s Episode We Discuss:
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Cem Kansu is the Chief Product Officer at Duolingo, where he leads product strategy for over 90 million monthly active learners. Since joining Duolingo, Cem has played a pivotal role in driving record user engagement, revenue growth, and product innovation, including the launch of Duolingo Math and the wildly successful Duolingo Music. Under his leadership, the company has consistently ranked as the #1 education app gl...
Agenda:
00:00 – Meta’s $14.8B Deal for Scale: The Analysis
05:40 – Will Scale Lose Their $800M ARR? Will All Customers Leave?
13:00 – Who is the Winner from All Scale Customers Leaving?
21:30 – Who Made the Most Money From Scale?
24:00 – LPs Just Got $14B Back. Are They Reinvesting?
26:45 – Chime IPO: The Breakdown
29:20 – Ramp H...
Larry Aschebrook is the Founder and Managing Partner of G Squared in what is one of the wildest stories of venture capital. Larry started G Squared with nothing, dialling for dollars having personally invested in Twitter and Uber. In his first fund, Larry made sizable bets into SpaceX, Palantir, Alibaba and Twitter. Larry has also had mega losses along the way (discussed in the show) in Getir, 23andme and more. Today, ...
Agenda:
00:03 – Circle’s IPO: Investors Just Left $BNs on the Table
00:06 – CoreWeave & Circle: Are We Back to Meme Stock Madness?
00:11 – Should Stripe and Databricks Finally Go Public?
00:17 – US Stock Markets: How They DOMINATE the Global Game
00:21 – 50% of Unicorns Are DOOMED. What Happens Now?
Micha Kaufman is the Founder and CEO of Fiverr, the leading online marketplace for freelance services. Fiverr has had an insane ride in the public markets, in 2019 the company went public with a $650M market cap, at their peak that hit over $8BN. Today, facing a wave of AI, the company has a market cap of $1.121BN on an estimated $430M EOY revenues. Prior to co-founding Fiverr, Micha successfully founded and led severa...
Matt Pohlson is the co-founder and Chairman of Omaze, the most insane story in startups that you have never heard. From near death experience to working with Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney and The Pope. Omaze has raised over $200 million for charity by offering once-in-a-lifetime celebrity experiences and luxury house draws. He's a master storyteller, a purpose-driven builder, and one of the most creative entrep...
Agenda:
00:00 – The Most Unfiltered Episode Ever Begins
03:30 – Does OpenAI Even Matter? Sam Lessin Says Maybe Not.
05:45 – TVPI Is Bullshit?
09:20 – Asset Gatherers vs Real Investors: Who Actually Wins?
12:15 – The Death of the Billion-Dollar VC Fund?
16:00 – Mid-Tier VC Funds Are Getting An...
Varun Mohan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Windsurf, the leading AI-native IDE, which has over a million users and generates over 50% of all committed software across thousands of companies. Prior to Windsurf, Varun graduated with a Master’s in Computer Science from MIT and led a team at Nuro focused on large-scale deep learning infrastructure for autonomous vehicles.
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Kyle Norton is the Chief Revenue Officer at Owner.com, where he scaled revenue from $2M to $40M ARR in under 3 years while selling to one of the toughest markets: SMB restaurants. Before Owner, Kyle led sales at Shopify, where he helped architect one of the most operationally elite GTM orgs in SaaS.
Agenda:
00:00 – From Shopify to $40M ARR at ...
Agenda:
00:00 – Why “Fund Returners” Are a Myth in Late-Stage VC
05:02 – Builder.ai Implodes: $500M Gone & Fraud Allegations Begin
11:40 – The Dirty Truth About Late-Stage Venture Math
15:57 – The Hinge IPO: Who Won, Who Lost, and Why It’s a Game Changer
23:03 – The Chime Bombshell: Late-Stage VCs Forced to Crystallize Huge Losses
27:14 – Why...
Airwallex is the most insane story in startups:
- The best angel investment ever: The angel that turned $1M into $1BN.
- One of the world's best VCs pulled a term sheet and lost $1BN.
- The company turned down a $1.2BN offer from Stripe.
- The company scaled to $1BN in transaction volume in 9 months.
- The company has never not grown 100% in a year. <...
Luke Harries is Head of Growth at ElevenLabs, where he leads marketing, product, engineering, and developer experience. ElevenLabs has raised $281M with the latest round pricing the company at $3.3B valuation. Previously, Luke held roles at PostHog and Microsoft, and is also an angel investor supporting startups like Lovable and Runna.
In Today’s Episode We Discuss...
Agenda:
04:34 Chime's IPO Announcement: Who Wins & Who Loses
06:28 The Lopphole That Means Chime Has a Better Business than JP Morgan
10:51 Why Investors Who Invested at $25BN Will Make Money...
Severin Hacker is the Co-Founder and CTO of Duolingo, the world’s most downloaded education app with over 100 million monthly users. Since its 2021 IPO, Duolingo has reached a market cap of $20BN. The company has raised over $183M from top-tier investors including CapitalG, Kleiner Perkins, Union Square Ventures, NEA, Ashton Kutcher, and Tim Ferriss. Severin is also an active angel investor, with standout bets includin...
Yuhki Yamashita is the Chief Product Officer at Figma, where he leads the development of one of the world’s most beloved design platforms. Previously, he was Head of Product at Uber, overseeing the core rider experience used by millions globally. A master of product storytelling and team-building, Yuhki has redefined how world-class digital products are built and scaled.
Items Mentioned in Today’s Episode:...
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