The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Jeppe Zink is the General Partner at Northzone, who have investments in the likes of Spotify, Bloglovin and TrustPilot, just to name a few. Jeppe himself established the London office of Northzone and his primary areas of focus are fintech, SaaS, marketplaces and mobile and has made investments in Wallapop, SpaceApe Games and many more. Before we delve into the show today, our dear friend and kind donator, Brad Feld has agreed to do a competition giveaway featuring signed copies of his amazing book, Venture Deals, all you have to do to be in with a chance is headover to the website at www.thetwentyminutevc.com and sign up for our newsletter. It’s that simple. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Hussein mad his way into the wonderful world of venture? 2.) What was it like to start a new fund with Hoxton and why did Hussein leave the security of Accel to start his own? 3.) Why did Hussein believe this was the stage with the most opportunity? Does he think there is too much capital chasing too few deals? 4.) With DarkTrace (portfolio company), Hoxton were the only VC money in at the early stage? How did that come about and what was it about Hoxton that made Mike take your money? 5.) Why did Hussein choose to setup the fund in London? What does he think is driving the surge in European tech with the rise of the Nordics etc? 6.) With Steve O’Hear Hussein stated he looks for brand new markets that are going to be formed (Playfish)? What does he think those are? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Jeppe's Fave Book: Zero To One, Startup Growth Engines Jeppe's Fave Blog: Strictly VC Jeppe's Productivity Tools: CityMapper, Genius Jeppe's Most Recent Investment: CrossLend As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Jeppe on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session you can follow him on Instagram here!

Hussein Kanji really is a pedigree in the industry having started off his career with Microsoft, he made the leap into venture with Accel Partners where he was a board observer with the likes of Playfish, acquired by Electronic Arts and made seed investments in the likes of OpenGamma and Dapper acquired by Yahoo. Following such success, Hussein raised his own fund and is now the founder of Hoxton Ventures, a 2013 fund with $40m under management. Despite, Hoxton’s age their portfolio is immense with the likes of Deliveroo, DarkTrace by the famous Mike Lynch from Autonomy and Campanja, recently acquired by 24/7 customer. Before we delve into the show today, our dear friend and kind donator, Brad Feld has agreed to do a competition giveaway featuring signed copies of his amazing book, Venture Deals, all you have to do to be in with a chance is headover to the website at www.thetwentyminutevc.com and sign up for our newsletter. It’s that simple. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Hussein mad his way into the wonderful world of venture? 2.) What was it like to start a new fund with Hoxton and why did Hussein leave the security of Accel to start his own? 3.) Why did Hussein believe this was the stage with the most opportunity? Does he think there is too much capital chasing too few deals? 4.) With DarkTrace (portfolio company), Hoxton were the only VC money in at the early stage? How did that come about and what was it about Hoxton that made Mike take your money? 5.) Why did Hussein choose to setup the fund in London? What does he think is driving the surge in European tech with the rise of the Nordics etc? 6.) With Steve O’Hear Hussein stated he looks for brand new markets that are going to be formed (Playfish)? What does he think those are? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Hussein's Fave Book: The Second Bounce Of The Ball: Ronald Cohen, Flowers from Algernon Hussein's Fave Blog: Josh Koppelman: Redeye VC, Abnormal Returns As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Hussein on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session you can follow him on Instagram here!

Willie Biggart is the Chairman @ Spoonfed, a startup on the cusp of 2 extremely hot sectors, SaaS and food. Spoonfed offers a new way for catering companies and restaurants to take advantage of the growing corporate food drop off market. They are currently raising a £500,000 round on SyndicateRoom, which you can check out here! With regards to Willie himself, Willie founded his own business, BD Network in 1990 and exited in 2002 and BD Ntwk is now one of Europe’s largest marketing agencies. Since 1990 Willie has started, developed and sold 3 businesses. CLICK TO PLAY In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Willie make his move into the entrepreneurial path and come to be Chairman of Spoonfed? 2.) Why does Willie believe it is more beneficial to have SaaS based businesses rather than people based businesses? 3.) Often the hardest problem for SaaS businesses is finding their first customers, how did Willie go about getting Spoonfed's initial user base? 4.) What strategies did Willie undertake to try and understand what features his customers wanted and then how to attract them? 5.) Why does Willie believe the food tech space has seen explosive growth, both in the UK and the US? 5.) Having invested and raised money in the seed round of the funding cycle, both as investor and operator, what advice would Willie give for founders entering a seed round. Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: SpoonFed's Current Fundraising Campaign on SyndicateRoom Willie's Fave Book: Eric Ries: The Lean Startup, The E-Myth Revisited Willie's Blog or Newsletter: Kenny Fraser, Sunstone Communications As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Ashish and LawTrades on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Mark Suster is Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures which he joined in 2007, having previously worked with Upfront for nearly 8 years as a two-time entrepreneur. Before joining Upfront Mark was Vice President, Product Management at Salesforce.com following its acquisition of Koral, where Mark was Founder and CEO. Prior to Koral, Mark was Founder and CEO of BuildOnline, a European SaaS company that was acquired by SWORD Group. Mark is also the writer of one of my favourite VC blogs, Both Sides Of The Table which is a centre piece to the whole VC community and is a must read for all interested in entrepreneurship and VC. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Mark make his way into the world of tech and later make the transition to VC? 2.) How have Mark's entrepreneurial origins influenced his investment style and approach to startups? 3.) What really gets Mark excited in terms of the founders and the companies they have built? 4.) How does Mark recommend that startup founders can meet investors and get those initial meetings? 5.) What sector is Mark most excited by and why? 6.) Mark has said in the past 'too much money too early often fucks companies up'. Why is that and how should founders determine what is the right amount to raise? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: My Fave of Mark's Posts: Entrepreneur DNA, I Invest In Lines Not Dots Mark's Fave Book: The Accidental Superpower Mark's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Stratechery, Ben Evans, Chris Dixon, Tom Tunguz Mark's Most Recent Investment: Mitu Networks As always you can follow Harry, Mark, The Twenty Minute VC and Upfront Ventures on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Antoine Nussenbaum is a Principal and member of the founding team of Felix Capital. Prior to Felix, Antoine was a Partner at Atlas Global, a private equity fund originally part of GLG Partners. Over the past five years he has worked closely with various early-stage digital startups including Mirakl, Jellynote, Pave, Reedsy and 31Dover and actively helped them launch their businesses. If that wasn't enough he has also been involved since inception with Huckletree, a fast growing coworking operator dedicated to the UK digital community which was started by his wife. To check out the available positions at Felix Capital click here! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Antoine make his move into the world of VC? 2.) What sectors do Felix invest in? What stage? Geography? 3.) How do Felix position themselves in the VC space? How do Felix plan to differentiate between other VCs firms in Europe? As for the structure of the fund, why did Felix choose an advisor heavy approach? 4.) Why does Antoine think Europe has the edge at the moment? Also, with the rise of the Nordics and Berlin, why did Felix choose to setup in London? 5.) How does Antoine assess the London and European funding and tech environment at the moment? Does Antoine agree with the media hype over a tech bubble? 6.) How do digital brands address the issue of the millenials with reducing brand loyalty? Does Antoine think this will be a problem for consumer startups in the fashion, food and travel space? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Felix's Manifesto, HuckleTree, Co-Founder @ Huckletree on CNBC Antoine's Fave Book: The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, Capital In The Twenty-First Century by Thomas Picketty Antoine's Fave Productivity Tools: Streak, Slack, Evernote, Pocket Antoine's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Fred Wilson: AVC, ProductHunt Antoine's Most Recent Investment: The Food Assembly As always you can follow Harry, Antoine, The Twenty Minute VC and Felix Capital on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Ashish Walia is the Co-Founder & COO at 500 Startups portfolio company, LawTrades. LawTrades aims to decentralise the traditional legal hiring process through providing an amazing marketplace of attorneys with domain experience in the startup world having worked with companies from the likes of YC, Techstars and 500. Ashish is also the Host of The Ashish Walia Show, a podcast dedicated to interviewing the latest and greatest world changing entrepreneurs, you can listen to Harry's interview on The Ashish Walia Show here! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) I would love to kick off today’s show by hearing a little about your background and the origins of LawTrades? What was the a-ha moment for you? 2.) Was Ashish nervous leaving the security of the legal profession for the life of a tech founder? What would Ashish advise people who want to make the leap but are not sure if it is worth risking everything? 3.) The legal space is about a century behind the rest of the consumerised world of tech, why is there this divergence between the advancement of tech and the lacking progression of the legal space? 4.) How did Ashish come to raise funds from 500? What was the process and interview like? Why did Ashish choose 500 out of all the accelerators? What were the challenging and surprising elements of the fundraising journey? 6.) What would Ashish do differently if he was founding LawTrades again? What does Ashish wish he had been told before he became an entrepreneur? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Ashish's Fave Book: Peter Thiel: Zero To One Ashish's Fave Entrepreneurial Resources: Gary Vaynerchuk, This Week In Startups, How To Start A Startup Ashish's Fave Blog: James Altucher, Tim Ferriss, As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Ashish and LawTrades on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here! We would like to say a special thank you to our partner for this very special 500 Startups Feature Week, LawTrades, the go to place for startups and VCs to get their legal work done. For all 20VC listeners LawTrades are offering a special $150 off your first piece of legal work when you mention ‘The Twenty Minute VC’. You can follow them on Twitter here!

Marvin is a Partner at 500 Startups, running the SF based accelerator program as well as investing in Seed stage start ups. Prior to 500 Marvin is a 10.5 year veteran of Yahoo! Inc., having held roles in various departments from Sales, Business Development, Ad Operations and Marketing and presently serves on the boards/advisory boards of several internet advertising and ad technology companies across the globe. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Marvin make his move into technology and the investing game? 2.) How was Marvin's time at Yahoo? How did Marvin see the company change over the 10 years he was there? How do you feel your position at Yahoo equipped you for 500 Startups? 3.) So coming from 10 years at Yahoo you could have had your pick of VCs to join. What was it about 500 that attracted you and why do you believe this very early stage is the biggest opportunity to exploit? 4.) 500 has now ironically invested in 1000+ startups, leading me to ask, what is the admissions process like and what Marvin's criteria at 500 for investment decisions? What are the key metrics you look at? 5.) How does Marvin respond to the notion that investing with 500 Startups removes the talent of investing through the spray and pray method? 6.) Now 500 Startups has recently raises an new $85m fund, alongside a new fund of $30m for Japan, $10m for South East Asia and a $10m fund for Thailand. So firstly, does this prove that the 500 model is successfully scaling? What does the future hold for 500? Where do you see the most innovation and progress? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Marvin's Fave Book:The Art of Worldly Wisdom, The 4 Hour Work Week Marvin's Fave Productivity Tool: Evernote, Calendly.com Marvin's Fave Blog: James Clear, James Altucher, Tim Ferriss, Fred Wilson, Mark Suster Marvin's Most Interesting Investments: Neighborly, Agfunder As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Marvin and 500 on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here! We would like to say a special thank you to our partner for this very special 500 Startups Feature Week, LawTrades, the go to place for startups and VCs to get their legal work done. For all 20VC listeners LawTrades are offering a special $150 off your first piece of legal work when you mention ‘The Twenty Minute VC’. You can follow them on Twitter here!

Matt Lerner is a Distro Partner with 500 Startups, and runs their London office. He specializes in conversion optimization, analytics, engagement and retention. As a member of the in-house growth (AKA “Distro”) team, he partners with 500 portfolio companies to help them build growth engines and scale. Previously, as a 500 Startups Mentor, Matt helped over 40 companies develop and execute growth strategies. Prior to joining 500 Startups, he worked as a Marketing Director at PayPal, where he built and managed three growth teams that generated hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue across the funnel. Here are some of Matt's amazing growth hacking slide decks: 10 Growth Hacking Tools To Disrupt Your Competitors Growth Hacking 101 For your chance to win a signed copy of Brad Feld's amazing Venture Deals, all you have to do is click the click to tweet link here: http://ctt.ec/C61w6 and you will be entered into the competition. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Matt made his move from Paypal to VC with 500Startups? 2.) What is the mission at 500 in London with the Distro? What is the investment thesis? Preferred round? Sector? What process do you take the companies through when they are with you in the Dojo? 3.) What does growth hacking really mean? Is it not another BS new techie term? 4.) What has Matt found to be some of the most effective growth hacks and why? What are the biggest mistakes companies make with regards to growth? How can they avoid them? 5.) When does Matt think a company should start to focus on growth? 6.) Who does Matt personally admire and think has been extremely effective and why? What campaigns or pieces of work have led him to this conclusion? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Matt's Recent Investments: Tom Beverly: Fy, Tamatem Matt's Fave Book: Do You Talk Funny: The Guide To Public Speaking, The One Thing You Need To Know Matt's Fave Newsletter: Doug Scott, Susan Su: Distro Snack, Tim Ferriss Podcast Matt's Growth Hacking Idols: Dave McClure: Pirate Metrics Talk, Sean Ellis: Inventor of Growth Hacking Term, Andy Johns @ WealthFront, As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Matt and 500 Startups on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here! We would like to say a special thank you to our partner for this very special 500 Startups Feature Week, LawTrades, the go to place for startups and VCs to get their legal work done. For all 20VC listeners LawTrades are offering a special $150 off your first piece of legal work when you mention 'The Twenty Minute VC'. You can follow them on Twitter here!

Joining us in the hotseat today is a young man who is insanely smart, he skipped 4 grades in school and graduated University at just 17, at which point he moved to the states on his own and within months was working alongside tech legends Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson at Digg. However, it was not long before he started his own company Kiip, a category-creating mobile rewards network that is redefining mobile advertising through an innovative platform that leverages "moments of achievement" in games and apps to simultaneously benefit users, developers and advertisers. If you have not guessed it by now, shame on you, it is of course, the incredible Brian Wong, one of the youngest people to ever raise VC funding receiving investment from the likes of Hummer Winblad, previous guest at Transmedia Capital Chris Redlitz (Episode 26), True Ventures and many more. For the chance to win Brad Feld’s amazing book, Venture Deals, all you have to do is head on over to ProductHunt’s new podcast section and upvote this episode of The Twenty Minute VC if you enjoyed it, by clicking here! A huge thank you to our sponsors for today's show, LawTrades, the marketplace that connects startups & VCs to awesome attorneys to get their legal work done at the best price! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Brian start his career? What is the Brain Wong origin snapshot? 2.) What was it about Fred Wilson that made Brian most wanting to talk to him above all other VCs when he made the move to NY? 3.) What was it like working with amazing founders like Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson? What were Brian's biggest takeaways from the experience? 4.) As a 19 year old, how difficult was it raising capital for your startup? Has it become harder raising further rounds from seed to series A to growth rounds? 5.) How have Brian's board of directors helped or hindered along the Kiip journey? How do experienced executives respond to working with such a young CEO and does age make it difficult to retain top talent? 6.) With the evolution of technology and progression of time, how are Kiip addressing the growing competitive market and how are you navigating Kiip into new social media channels? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Brian's Fave Book: Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely Brian Fave Blog: Inside.com by Jason Calacanis Brian's Fave Productivity Tool: Evernote, Box As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Brian on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Weston Gaddy is a Senior Principal at Bain Capital Ventures where he focuses on investments in early-stage companies and assists the portfolio operations group. Weston is also a YC alum with Frogmetrics, a handheld survey device company, he co-founded in college and received funding from Founders Fund, Y Combinator and Alexis Ohanian at Reddit. Outisde of the tech and VC world Weston was a Weston worked as a strategy consultant for media, financial service, and consumer product clients at Bain & Company in New York. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Weston make his way into the technology and VC? 2.) What was Weston's biggest takeaway from the YC experience? Has the experience impacted his investing strategy? 3.) Why is the world of branding changing from dominant players using traditional mainstream channels to a more open opportunity for startups to connect with consumers? What is changing? 4.) On the topic of brand loyalty how brands create brand loyalty in the fickle generation of young millenials often with a mercenary outlook? 5.) What sectors have most opportunity to exploit this revolution in branding? Why do you say those sectors? Have you based any of your investments around these assumptions? 6.) How important is it for VCs to specialize and have superb sector knowledge in something? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Weston's Fave Book: The Sixth Extinction Weston's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Dan Primack's TermSheet Weston's Most Recent Investment: Jet.com As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Weston on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Patricia Nakache is General Partner at Trinity Ventures where she focuses on funding companies launching innovative online consumer and business services. Her portfolio of past investments is just astonishing with the likes of LoopNet and Care.com IPOing, PayScale being acquired by Warburg Pincus, Uptake being acquired by Groupon and many more. To be entered into the competition to win a signed copy of Brad Feld's legendary Venture Deals, all you have to do is click here and upvote this episode on ProductHunt and you will be automatically entered into the competition. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Patricia get into the technology industry and then later make her transition into the world of Venture Capital? 2.) A recent study has shown that the total number of female partners has fallen from 10% to 6% in the time that you have been at Trinity. Why is there this gender misrepresentation and what can be done to improve female equality in the VC industry? 3.) Sheila has invested in some incredible female entrepreneurs such as Sheila Marcelo at Care.com, Illana Stern at Weddington Way and Anna Zornosa at Ruby Ribbon? What excited Patricia about these entrepreneurs and what can female entrepreneurs do to increase their chances of funding? 4.) With the increasing amount of capital available, VCs face greater competition between firms, what can VCs bring to the table to beat the competition? 5.) What elements of the on demand economy face danger in the coming years in a similar way to Homejoy? 5.) Which sector is Patricia most excited about and why? 6.) Why has there been a resurgence in the marketplace model particularly in ecommerce? What are the drivers of this change? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Patricia's Fave Book: Good To Great by Jim Collins Patricia's Fave Blog: Strictly VC, Owler Patricia's Most Recent Investment: Mayvenn As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Patricia on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session you can follow Harry on Instagram here!

For 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/d1dE3 Kuan Huang, is the Founder of Poncho an internally built company at Betaworks. A simpler weather service with a personality, delivered to you every day. Prior to creating Poncho, Kuan was a Hacker in residence at Betaworks and as he describes the luckiest engineer at Hatch Labs a mobile focused startup incubator funded by IAC. I would like to direct your attention to one of Betaworks investments on the west coast in the amazing ProductHunt, and you must check out ProductHunt’s new podcast section, which is the best discovery platform for finding new and amazing podcast episodes! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Kuan get into the world of Betaworks and what was Kuan's aha moment for Poncho? 2.) What was wrong with weather apps when Kuan started Poncho? What made Kuan think there was a gap in the market? 3.) Kuan said in an interview with TechCrunch “The core objective is to have Poncho become a default part of your routine,” How has Kuan gone about to ensure that there are habit forming functions in poncho? What makes the user come back? Does Kuan prefer mass market testing or niche 100 person testing? 4.) What role does Betaworks play in the development of Poncho? What are the main value adds of being a Betaworks company? 5.) Looking back at the Poncho journey so far, what were the breakthrough moments where progress was really made? What were the most challenging elements and how did Kuan overcome them? 6.) What would Kuan advise a founder looking to work with Betaworks? Is there anything they can do to increase their chances of a collaboration? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Kuan's Fave Reading Material: Medium, Instapaper As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Kuan on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Peter Rojas is an entrepreneur-in-residence at betaworks focusing on early stage investments. Prior to joining betaworks he was VP of Strategy at AOL. He also co-founded several startups, including Weblogs Inc (with previous guest Jason Calacanis) (acquired by AOL in 2005), where he created tech sites Engadget and Joystiq; he also created gdgt, a social commerce platform (acquired by AOL in 2013); and gadget blog Gizmodo (now part of Gawker Media). Previously Rojas worked as an editor at the original Red Herring, a columnist on emerging technology for The Guardian, a contributor to Wired, The New York Times, Fortune, Money, and many more. One of Betaworks investments on the west coast is the amazing ProductHunt, and you must check out ProductHunt’s new podcast section, which is the best discovery platform for finding new and amazing podcast episodes! Also, would you like the chance to win a signed copy of Venture Deals by Brad Feld? All you have to do is leave a review on iTunes and then email [email protected] with the name that you left the review under! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) From tech blogger and entrepreneur to founding Engadget, and then a product person and now at Betaworks. Peter gives a snapshot of his career so far? 2.) What is Peter doing on the West Coast when Betaworks is based in NYC? How do you compare the two technology environments and ecosystems? 3.) What is involved in being EIR at Betaworks? Why has this position become so popular over the last few years? 4.) How does Peter and Betaworks approach the changing world of seed and as I have seen recently, pre seed investments? Do you have any set metrics that you stick to? What KPIs are always the first ones you look at? 5.) What VCs does Peter admire and look to emulate? 6.) What has Peter learnt from his 1st month in venture? What has been the biggest surprises and challenges about the industry? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Productivity Tools: Reeder Peter's Fave Blogs or Newsletter: Jason Hirschhorn: REDEF, ProductHunt Peter's Fave Book: Antifragile As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Peter on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side of Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Matt Hartman is director of seed investments at betaworks. Prior to joining betaworks, he was co-founder of ReferBoost, a profitable b2b company in the real estate and social media space, and JustBecause, a mobile app used by Uber, Birchbox, Jackthreads, and other e-commerce companies for customer acquisition. He started his career building the technology platform for Trammell Crow Company (acquired by CBRE) before joining Hot Potato (acquired by Facebook). In this interview with Matt we talk about one of Betaworks investments in ProductHunt and I would love to direct you all to go check out ProductHunt’s new podcast section, it’s the best way to find new and amazing podcast episodes, check it out! To win a signed copy of Venture Deals by Brad Feld? All you have to do is leave a review on iTunes and then email [email protected] with the name that you left the review under! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How you has Matt ended up at the amazing Betaworks, what was his career pre-Betaworks? 2.) How does Matt define betaworks and his role in particular in the Betaworks organisation? What makes this model the most effective and successful in Matt's view? 3.) How does Matt believe the structure of social networks alters user behavior and therefore impacts distribution? How do social networks include habit forming behaviours to ensure user retention on their networks? 4.) What does Matt think makes a strong community? What was it about ProductHunt that signaled to you this was the beginning of a rapidly growing community? 5.) With Betaworks investment in Gimlet Media, how does Matt see the future of podcasting? Does investing in Gimlet not break the rule that it has to be a potentially $bn exit? 6.) Question from Ryan Hoover, Founder at ProductHunt: ‘What product or app has impressed Matt the most in the past year and what really gets Matt excited when trying new products both as an investor and as a user’? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Most Read Blog or Newsletter: Founder's Notebook by David Jaxson Matt's Favourite Book: The Psychology of Pursuasion by Robert Cialdini Matt's Fave Productivity Apps: Drafts Most Recent Investment: Disruptive Multimedia by Ryan Leslie As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Matt on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

To 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 technology of the daily deals site, Living Social and before that we was CTO at InfoEther, a Ruby and Ruby-On-Rails consultancy firm. Fowler is also the host and organiser of numerous tech conferences and wrote "The Passionate Programmer", a career guide for software developers. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) Where did it all begin for Chad and how did he make the move from his musician dreams to CTO of tech startups? 2.) As an American, working in Europe, how does Europe's tech community compare to the US? 3.) Wunderlist was the App of the Year, what does Chad believes makes it so special? 4.) Is there more to go in improving the consumer feel of enterprise software? 5.) How did Chad go about creating a product with such habit forming ability? 6.) Question from Carolina Brochado @ Atomico: What is it like moving from a small manned startup to a giant corporation like Microsoft? Items Mentioned in Today's Show: Chad's Fave Book: The E Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Chad on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side of Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

For 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 of the highest base camps in the Himalayas, meditated with Tibetan monks in the Dalai Lama's monastery, held the hands of dying patients, earned a US Army Infantry patch, walked 550 miles across Spain, been the only non-black, non-woman member of the Black Women's writers' group and written books including my favourite the previously mentioned, Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) Where does Kamal see the future of Venture Capital? 2.) What worries Kamal about the tech scene? 3.) How does Kamal sort the wood from the trees in the frothy market of tech startups? 4.) What are Kamal's must read books and blogs? 5.) Which leaders or figures is Kamal inspired by and why? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: My Fave Book: Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It by Kamal Ravikant Kamal's Fave Book: The Alchemist, The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope Kamal's Fave Blog: James Altucher Kamal's Most Recent Investment: Bolt As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Kamal on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow Harry on Instagram here!

For 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 of the highest base camps in the Himalayas, meditated with Tibetan monks in the Dalai Lama's monastery, held the hands of dying patients, earned a US Army Infantry patch, walked 550 miles across Spain, been the only non-black, non-woman member of the Black Women's writers' group and written books including my favourite the previously mentioned, Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Kamal make his way into the world of Venture Capital? 2.) What were Kamal's biggest takeaways from working as an entrepreneur? 3.) What really makes a great VC? How can VCs provide true and genuine value add? 4.) Why is now the best time to be an entrepreneur? What has changed? 5.) What would Kamal advise an entrepreneur looking to build a startup? .) Where does Kamal see the future of Venture Capital? 6.) What worries Kamal about the tech scene? 7.) How does Kamal sort the wood from the trees in the frothy market of tech startups? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Kamal's Fave Book: The Alchemist, Hemingway, The Great Work of Stephen Cope, Kamal's Fave Blog: James Altucher Kamal's Most Recent Investment: Bolt As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Kamal on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow Harry on Instagram here!

Eric 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 from the typical startup? Was this effective or would it have been more productive to go full in? 3.) What were Paribus' testing hypotheses like? Does Eric prefer mass market testing or niche 100 person testing? 4.) How was the admissions process for YC, why did Eric choose YC and why were YC attracted to Paribus? 5.) What would Eric advise founders looking to get into YC? Is there anything they can do or know that will increase their chances of getting into YC? 6.) What were the breakthrough moments for Paribus? What were the most challenging elements and how did Eric overcome them? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Eric's Fave Book: I, Robot Eric's Fave Blog: AppSumo by Noah Kagan As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Eric and Paribus on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, follow Harry on Instagram here!

Aaron 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: 1.) How did Aaron make his move into the world of entrepreneurship with Tutorspree and then become a YC Partner? 2.) Why did Aaron join YC and why does he believe the biggest potential lies at this stage of the cycle? 3.) Now at YC, Aaron is a Partner, what does that entail, what level of interaction do you have with the founders, where does YC look to add serious value? 4.) With the mass of startups now in the 100s coming out of each YC demo day, how does YC assure the same quality and level of value add? 5.) With regards to testing what is YC’s opinion? How does YC assess whether a product does have product market fit? What are the YC requirements for growth whilst in YC? 6.) What happens after the YC experience, does YC maintain conversations and communication? How does YC try to maintain valuations at a reasonable level to stop YC price inflation? 7.) What is the future for YC? Are we going to see another funding round? Is the YC model scalable? Could we have a YC Europe? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Aaron & YC's Podcast: Startup School Radio Aaron's Fave Book: The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, Founder's At Work by Jessica Livingston As always you can follow Harry, Aaron, The Twenty Minute VC and YC on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Kirsty 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 Taggar stating that ‘YC would cease to operate if Kirsty was not around’. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Kirsty made her move from PWC in Cambridge to CFO at the World’s Most Successful Accelerator? 2.) Joining YC permanently in 2010, how has Kirsty seen it develop to today’s current state? What has been the key drivers to the success and growth of YC? 3.) As CFO Kirsty has developed a certain pattern recognition with regards to what investors and VCs like to see in the terms of startups. What are they? 4.) Kirsty has seen the progression of many startups, what are the most common problems startups face in the fundraising cycle? What are the commonalities in those that are successful? 5.) How does YC address the issue of potentially inflated valuations for their alum? 6.) What are some financials that all founders should know all the time? 7.) What is the future for YC? Are we going to see another funding round? Is the YC model scalable? Could we have a YC Europe? As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Y Combinator on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Alice 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 Board, and acted as the Prime Minister's expert on startups at the Northern Future Forum. She has been recognised in Management Today’s 35 under 35 and the Evening Standard’s Top 1000 most influential Londoners. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Alice came up with the idea for EF and why she decided to found the company? 2.) What would Alice recommend is the best way to build a company from scratch? EF is for technical individuals, what can non technical individuals do? 3.) What would Alice say makes a great founder? Has she seen any commonalities in the great founders that have exited EF? 4.) What is Alice's opinion on equity divisions within startups? What is the right way to approach the topic? 5.) What should teams focus on in the first 100 days of their startup? What is the 20% that produces 80% of the results? 6.) What has been the hardest aspect of growing the business and how did Alice overcome it? As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Alice on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry and many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Bob 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 at McKinsey & Company where he led McKinsey Global Institute’s healthcare economics work and Center for United States Health System Reform. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Bob made his way from The White House to Venrock as a VC? 2.) How did working at The White House prepare Bob for his career as a VC, where does Bob have the biggest opportunity to change the healthcare system? 3.) What are the barriers to entry that a preventing full scale innovation and business growth in the healthcare IT space? 4.) Why have we seen a large increase in healthcare startups? What more would you Bob like to see in the healthcare space, either from the side of the startups or VC’s? 5.) How does Bob perceive the integration of software and healthcare in the future? 6.) As a healthcare professional, what would Bob recommend an individual with a high powered, demanding job in order to lead a healthy lifestyle? Items Mentioned In Todays Episode: Bob's Fave Book: The System Bob's Most Recent Investment: Lyra Health As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Bob on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito night, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Michael 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-stage investments in technology companies at Warburg Pincus in San Francisco, invested in publicly traded technology companies at Highside Capital, and helped advise technology companies as part of Morgan Stanley's investment banking team in New York. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Michael made his way into the VC industry? Do you think it is very important for VCs to have entrepreneurial experience? 2.) How does Michael compare the investing environments between London and SF? What was his biggest takeaway from Warburg Pincus in SF? 3.) Accel is stage agnostic, why is that? What size market attracts Michael? How can Michael tell whether founders have the ability to exploit the market? 4.) What Michael believes are his key value adds? Have these changed over time? 5.) We often hear startups being described as ‘uber for’, ‘tinder for’. Do VCs like this simplification of business? How else would Michael suggest a complex concept can be broken down into something easily digestible? 6.) Does Michael still believe there is room for improvement in the consumerisation of enterprise software? Does Emergence Capital's pivot signal a turning tide? Items Mentioned In Todays Episode: Michael's Fave Book: The Innovator's Dilemma, Crossing The Chasm Michael Productivity Tools: Wunderlist Michael's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Dan Primack, Term Sheet Michael' Most Recent Investment: CartoDB As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Michael on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito night, you can follow him on Instagram here!

James 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 articles in Forbes, The New York Times, Bloomberg and Business Insider. James is also an active angel investor, having invested in Kixer, a mobile advertising platform, Gradient X, a mobile DSP (acquired by SingTel) and Conversion Logic, an online advertising attribution platform. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) What were James' entrepreneurial origins and what was his aha moment? 2.) How did James get his first clients and what were the hardest aspects of growing the business? 3.) What was it like working with these tech titans like Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin? 4.) Shift obtained $14m in VC funding. How did James meet his investors? How was the fundraising experience for James? What were the surprises and challenging aspects? 5.) Shift was acquired by Brand Networks for $50m but what were James' reasons for selling? Was there any clash between James and his investors when it came to the sale? 6.) What advice would James give to founders contemplating selling their business to larger acquirers? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: James' Fave Book: John Adams by Dave McCullough James' Fave Apps: Snapchat, Business Insider and ProductHunt As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and James on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Fabrice 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 to FJ Labs and Beepi, Fabrice was co-founder and co-CEO of OLX, one of the largest websites in the world with over 200 million unique visitors per month. Submit Your Startup To Fabrice In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Fabrice make his entry into the world of investing? 2.) How important is it for investors to have entrepreneurial experience? 3.) What are the most common problems Fabrice's portfolio companies face? 4.) What is Fabrice's selection criteria for startups when investing and what determines the valuation of a startup? 5.) How does Fabrice respond to the allegation that he is a clone collector? 6.) With Fabrice's $1m syndicate, does he believe syndicates have the potential to replace VC? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Fabrice's Fave Book: What If by Randall Munroe, Think Like A Freak by Stephen Dubner Fabrice's Fave Newsletter: TechCrunch Fabric's Most Recent Investment: Flexport As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Fabrice on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow Harry on Instagram here!

Nicholas 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 move into the venture industry? 2.) Who does Nick consider a mentor and thought leader in the VC industry? 3.) Why now is the best time to be a pre-seed fund in NYC? 4.) At the pre-seed stage what metrics does Notation focus on? 5.) How does Nicholas evaluate the valuation ecosystem? 6.) How does Nicholas handle deal sourcing? Where does he find startups to invest in? 7.) Does crowdfunding act as a competing finance method at the pre-seed stage? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Nick's Fave Book: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante Nick's Fave Newsletter: Wait But Why Nick Most Recent Investment: Zipdrug: Your Prescriptions Delivered on Demand Best Meditation Apps: Headspace, Calm As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Nick and Notation on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many mojito sessions, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Eric 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 found on Medium here! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Eric made the move from Angara, Kleiner Perkins company, to his role in venture? 2.) How being a founder affected how Eric interacted and invested in startups? 3.) How can founders learn the skills of interacting with their investors and board? 4.) What makes the hot companies, hot and the others struggle? 5.) Does Eric agree with startups raising a 'warchest' of funds if they can? How can startups determine what is the right amount to raise? 6.) Why are SF angels so much more successful than other investors? What do they have that other do not? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Eric's Fave Book: The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, Crossing The Chasm by Geoffrey Moore Eric's Fave Newsletter or Blog: Tomasz Tunguz Research and analysis provided by CB Insights As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Eric on Twitter here? To see a more colourful side to Harry's personality and a few mojito sessions, you can follow Harry on Instagram here!

Jeff 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 $85M Fund IV, making 16 commitments of $850K per year in mobile/cloud saas, consumer hardware, marketplaces and healthcare IT. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Jeff made his entry into the world of VC? 2.) In a time when hardware was not heavily invested in, what attracted Jeff to Fitbit? 3.) How did Jeff convince Brad to invest in Fitbit? 4.) What can startups do to standout in the crowded market that exists today? 5.) What do startups need to have to get a meeting with you at SoftTech? 6.) What VCs does Jeff most like to invest alongside? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Jeff's Fave Book: June by Gerbrand Bakker As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Jeff and SoftTech VC on Twitter here! For a more colourful look into Harry's life, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Javier 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 generating company. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Javier start his entrepreneurial career and what were the origins of Acompli? 2.) What was Javier's biggest takeaway from the failure of his first startup, back by Sequoia? 3.) How did Javier control his burn rate once large amounts of VC money was in his company? 4.) How does Javier approach product market fit? 5.) How did Javier meet his investors for Accompli and how did Javier find the fundraising process? 6.) What were Javier's reasons for selling Acompli? Was there any conflict with his investors in selling the company? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Javier's Fave Book: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Javier's Fave Newsletter or Blog: Wait but Why? As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Javier right here on Twitter! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow Harry on Instagram here!

Ben 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 differentiate itself from other competitors like Dropcam? 3.) How much better does a new product have to be to beat the existing incumbents? 4.) Does Ben prefer mass market testing or small targeted testing with fewer individuals? 5.) How did Ben get his first customers? 6.) What has Ben done to drive the success of his Indiegogo campaign? What tips would he give to founders looking to raise on these platforms? 7.) How did Ben get Jason Calacanis as an angel? How did Ben find the fundraising process? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Ben's Fave Book: The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho Ben's Fave Newsletter or Blog: Brad Feld's Feld.com, Jason Calacanis' Launch Ticker Ben's Fave Productivity Apps: Asana, Sunrise Calendar, Calm Meditation App As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Ben and Butterfleye on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with some mojito sessions to come, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Sean 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 to the PROfounders portfolio companies, he has in the past worked closely with others such as Bebo, Wonga.com, and ConstantContact. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Sean make his entry into the VC world at the peak of the first tech bubble? 2.) What was the biggest lesson Sean learnt from experiencing the bubble imploding? 3.) Why are we seeing this trend of US VC funds investing in Europe? 4.) What are the key drivers to the growth of the European tech ecosystem? 5.) Why is there a serious decline in the amount of Series C rounds, only 7 in Q2 2015? 6.) Is Sean concerned by the rise of Crowdfunding? Does Sean see it as a competing finance model to VC? 7.) Do investors on Crowdfunding platforms experience the same deal terms as VCs? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Sean's Fave Book: Robert Cialdini: Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion, Neal Stevenson: Cryptonomicon Sean's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Benedict Evans Newsletter Sean's Must Have Productivity Tools: Evernote, Google Apps Sean's Most Recent Investment: Made.com As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Sean and PROfounders on Twitter right here! For a more colourful view of Harry and maybe a few mojito sessions follow Harry on Instagram here!

Mattias 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, working on sourcing, evaluation and due diligence of investments. Carolina is based in London, however she travels frequently to Latin America to evaluate opportunities for Atomico to help companies in the region to scale. Prior to Atomico, Carolina started her career at Merrill Lynch's investment banking division before moving to private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners. Did you like the double guest show today? If so click here! If you prefer a single guest click here! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Mattias and Carolina made their way into the VC industry with Atomico? 2.) How important is it for VCs to have entrepreneurial backgrounds? 3.) What advice would Mattias and Carolina give to anyone looking to enter the VC industry? 4.) What is Atomico's selection criteria? Average cheque size? Round preference? Sector preference? 5.) Why is now the best time to be a European entrepreneur? What has changed? 6.) What does it take for a tech ecosystem to thrive and grow? 7.) What is required for startups to scale from small markets to mass market adoption? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Mattias' Fave Book: The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson Carolina's Fave Book: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt Mattias' Fave Blog or Newsletter: Benedict Evans Carolina's Fave Newsletter: The Skim, Dan Primack: TermSheet Atomics's Most Used Productivity Tools: Wunderlist, Evernote, Pocket, SmartNews Atomics's Most Recent Investments: TrueCaller, GymPass As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Carolina and Mattias on Twitter here! For a more colourful image of Harry and maybe some mojito sessions, follow Harry on Instagram here!

Carl 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 entrepreneurial origins and how did Tictail get started? 2.) What does Carl's idea creation process look like? How does Carl brainstorm? 3.) Tictail now sells 2m products on their platform but how did they get their first customers? 4.) At what moment in the Tictail journey was Carl the most worried or frightened? 5.) What would Carl say are the essentials for funding? How did Carl meet his investors? What is the difference between the different funding rounds for startups? 6.) Why did Carl pitch other startups before pitching VCs? 7.) Question from Daniel Waterhouse @ Balderton: How has Tictail maintained the magic company culture in Sweden, whilst expanding to NY? 8.) If Carl could start his time with Tictail again, is there anything he would have done differently? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Carl's Fave Book: The Score Takes Care of Itself, My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh Carl's Fave Blog or Newsletter: First Round Capital Blog As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Carl and Tictail on Twitter right here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry and a few mojito sessions, you can follow Harry on Instagram here!

Seth 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, venture capital and colorado at www.sethlevine.com. If you enjoyed today's show, share the love on Twitter by clicking here! In Today's Show You Will Learn: 1.) Where it all started for Seth and how he made his move into the technology and venture industry? 2.) Question from James Altucher: Do you have to be in Silicon Valley to get the best access to deal flow? 3.) How has Foundry group developed since 2006 as VC firm? 4.) Why are all funds raised by Foundry the same, $225m? How is VC fundraising the same as startup fundraising? 5.) Question from Elizabeth Kraus: How does Seth stay motivated having enjoyed so much financial success with Foundry Group? 6.) What areas of tech is Seth most excited about? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Most Used Apps: Slack, Voxer, DarkSky Seth's Fave Book: The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway Seth's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Hidden Brain Seth Most Recent Investment: Sourcepoint As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Seth and Foundry Group on Twitter here! For a more colourful view of Harry's world and maybe a few mojito sessions, check out Harry's Instagram here!

Brad 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 Communities: Building An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem In Your Community. In addition to his investing and writing, Brad has been active with several non-profit organizations and currently is chair of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and co-chair of Startup Colorado. Brad is a nationally recognized speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship and writes the widely read blogs Feld Thoughts, Startup Revolution, and Ask the VC. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Brad made his move from entrepreneurship to VC and later co-founding, The Foundry Group. 2.) Does Brad agree with the view that it is important for entrepreneurs to fail? 3.) Why did Brad turn Fitbit down on 1st opportunity and what changed the 2nd time? 4.) What gets Brad excited in a startup? What areas are Brad most interested in? 5.) What is the main characteristic that makes the Foundry Group the huge success it is? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Brad's Fave Business Books: 1.) Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig 2.) Hot Seat by Dan Shapiro Brad's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Fred Wilson's Blog, Dan Primack: TermSheet, MatterMark Daily Brad's Most Recent Investments: GlowForge: The 3D Laser Printer, Sphero As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Brad and Foundry Group on Twitter here!

Sarah 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 and was named to the Mercury100, BizWest’s ranking of the 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in Boulder Valley. Sarah has been named one of Inc. Magazine's Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30, Businessweek's top 25 Entrepreneurs under 25, and one of the Denver Business Journal's Top Women Under 40. She’s been named a "Player to Watch" by the Gates Foundation, and was recognized by the White House and the United Nations as one of the country's top young entrepreneurs. In Today's Show You Will Learn: How the idea for UniversityParent came about? How did Sarah manage to juggle a growing business with a University degree? How individuals can leverage their university network to grow their business? How important is it for entrepreneurs to be surrounded by like minded entrepreneurs? In what circumstances should founders confide and not confide in their team? How does Sarah as a leader show her support for her team? How has Sarah found the fundraising process and what would Sarah change if she could start over? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Harry's Fave Book: The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz Sarah's Fave Book: The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo Sarah's Fave Newsletter or Blog: Think With Google As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Sarah on Twitter here!

Nick 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 Matrix Partners and worked in the technology groups at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs. Nick’s primary passion outside of venture investing is international development, in particular accelerating international development through entrepreneurship. Nick serves on the board of Endeavor, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs in developing countries that Tom Friedman has called “the best anti-poverty program of all.” In 2011, Forbes named Nick one of the “Elite 8″ to watch in Venture Capital. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: How Nick made his move into venture and started a bidding contest between two funds a bank for him! How Nick got to be involved with DataMinr and how Nick believes society will use data in the future? How does Nick standout in the super competitive rounds? What is Nick's value add? Is it still harder for female founders to get VC funding? Why? What can be done to improve this imbalance in the tech ecosystem? What is impact investing? How do you balance LP returns with social impact improvements? Our friend @ August Capital, David Hornik asks Nick, what is the difference between investing in NY compared to SF? Items Mentioned in Today's Show: Nick's Fave Book: Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl Nick's Fave Newsletter or Blog: Reid Hoffman, Essays on Entrepreneurship

Ezra 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 CardRunners Gaming – the parent company of CardRunners, Hold’em Manager and DraftDay – and before then earned a living as a professional poker player. If that wasn't enough he is also the author of one of our fave VC blogs www.breakingvc.com. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: How Ezra became a Poker Player and then transitioned to the world of Venture Capital? What is the mission with Chicago Ventures? Average ticket size? Preferred sector? How important is it for startups to be close to their investors, geographically and relationship wise? For marketplace startups, what metrics does Ezra really deep dive on? With the likes of Instacart raising huge rounds, why are we seeing this huge increase in food tech? In hugely crowded markets, how does Ezra sort the wood from the trees? What advice would Ezra recommend to individuals looking to enter the VC industry? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Ezra's Fave Book: The Little Prince Ezra's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Stratechery by Ben Thompson, Carpool.vc Ezra's Fave Productivity Tools: Rapportive, Bitmoji Ezra's Most Recent Investment: Luxury Garage Sale, Attendant Bill Gurley: 10 Factors To Consider When Evaluating Digital Marketplaces HungryRoot: Charlie O'Donnell, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Ezra on Twitter right here!

Pierre 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 Under 35. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: How Pierre came up with the idea for Sunrise? What made Sunrise standout above all calendar apps as the best calendar? What features are most requested by Sunrise users? How was the design process in altering the design from a iPhone to a Apple Watch? What was Pierre and Sunrise approach to testing and iterating products? Having raised VC funding prior to acquisition, how did Pierre meet his initial investors, what was his fundraising experience like? Were there any surprises or challenges? How did the Microsoft Acquisition come about? How has Pierre's role and Sunrise changed since the acquisition? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Pierre's Fave Book: Zero To One: Peter Thiel Pierre Most Impactful Purchase: iPhone 6 Pierre's Fave Newsletter or Blog: Stratechery by Ben Thompson

Fede 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 Yard, Playfair's current home. Prior to Playfair, he spent several years in Africa working for the UN, Oxfam and PharmaSecure, after which he lobbied government and large aid organisations to increase the transparency of aid flows. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Fede made his move into angel investing and then transitioned to form his own fund? 2.) What is the mission at Playfair? What is the average ticket size? Does Playfair have any preferred sectors? 3.) What do startups need to have to get the Playfair stamp of approval? What are Playfair looking for? 4.) How has Fede seen the seed funding environment change in London? 5.) How does Fede and Playfair stave off competition for the 'hot' startups looking to raise VC money? 6.) What benefits do founders get for working in a co-working space? How important is it for VCs to offer this service? 7.) How does Fede create a united company culture in a co-working space with so many different companies? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Fede's Fave Book: The Circle by David Eggers Fede Fave Newsletter or Blog: Dojo, AngelList Fede's Most Recent Investment: Knytton (Techstars London W14) As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Fede on Twitter right here!

Roxanne 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 Paris and London, which aims to raise the visibility of women in technology,entrepreneurship and innovation though monthly events, leadership programmes and much more. Roxanne has won a range of accolade including Top 30 Women Under 30 In Tech, Coolest 25 Women in Tech and 10 Women Shaking Up Tech In Their 30s. P.S. If you are looking for an amazing new podcast on the Tech Scene in Europe, check out Tech.eu's new show here: Tech.eu Podcast #4 In Today's Episode You Will Learn: How Roxanne made her move into the tech industry and then made the move from TechCrunch to running Microsoft's Accelerator in Paris? What would Roxanne recommend to people in tech contemplating moving countries? What are the best and most effective ways to learn code from scratch? What is the mission at Microsoft Ventures? What is the deal? What are the benefits? In the 10 minute pitch to Roxanne, what does Microsoft want to hear? How does Microsoft determine product-market fit? What does the increase in US funds entering the European market suggest? What are the benefits for startups of having global investors? What can startups do to increase their media exposure in the sea of new startups? What do journalists look for in emails from founders? How can founders be successful through submitting guest posts? What are the best and most effective ways to learn code from scratch? Items Mentioned in Today's Show: Roxanne's Fave Book: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde Roxanne's Reading Material: News.me: Digg Fred Wilson: Investing In Startups In Europe Microsoft Ventures Alumni: Zocdoc: Find a Doctor, Xobni: Your Smarter Address Book Is Waiting As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Roxanne on Twitter right here!

Nick 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 turned into BUX. Bud has attained many incredible mentions and awards including being named on the Fintech50 2015. You can also check out their first TV add right here! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: How Nick made the move from broking to founding Bux? What are the benefits of being a slightly older founder? What Nick would recommend to anyone looking for a technical co-founder? How to build a team of individuals with complimentary skills? What are the drivers for the incredible growth to 175,000 users? How is Nick planning to convert an audience of non trader to start trading? What advice would Nick give founders entering into heavily regulated markets? How Bux have built a great brand in a competitive market? Having raised funds from Orange Growth Capital, what was surprising and challenging for Nick about raising angel and VC money? What would Nick do differently if he was raising funds again? Does Nick agree with the concept of building a 'war chest' of funds? Items Mentioned in Today's Episode: Nick's Fave Book: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography Nick's Fave Newsletter or Blog: VICE News Nick's Fave App: BRAINTOSS: Toss your thoughts straight into your inbox As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Nick and Bux on Twitter right here!

Mike 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 challenges in the industry, before selling MySpace to SpecificMedia on behalf of NewsCorp. Mike is also an active early stage investor having personally invested in over 30 startup businesses including Klout, Betterworks, Formspring, ShoeDazzle to name a few. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Mike began his entrepreneurial career, how MySpace came about then how Mike made the move to Science Inc? 2.) What is the mission at Science, what does Science provide and how do they differ from the likes of YC and Techstars? 3.) Science have a specific methodology to identify the best startups and the best sectors. What is involved in this methodology? Has it changed since the start of Science? 4.) What can a startup founder do or show you to impress you? Are there any real red flags for you when meeting startup founders? What are the commonalities of the great founders? 5.) What is Science's involvement with the companies, what are their key value adds at Science? 6.) On Twist Mike said ‘growth is the most important thing, without growth there is no money’? So what at Science how do they approach growth and what are the challenges posed by this need for growth? Items Mentioned in Todays Episode: Mike's Fave Book: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do by Chris Duhigg Mike's Fave News Source: FlipBoard

Arteen 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 approach, how to deal with the emotional and psychological pressure of starting a company and the rise of marketplaces. When not with startups, Arteen sits on the board of TEDxVenice Beach and is a supporter of TWLOHA, a non-profit raising awareness and support for those struggling with mental health. As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Arteen and Karlin Ventures on Twitter right here! In Today's Episode You Will Learn: How Arteen made the jump into the world of Venture Capital, from originally wanting to be a plastic surgeon!! How did Arteen approach VCs when applying for positions? What did Arteen say in those emails to achieve such a high response rate? What tools did Arteen use to ensure he got the VCs real email address? Does Arteen agree with the traditional routes into Venture: Startup Founder, Consultant, Investment Banking? Why is Arteen so excited about marketplaces? Are there any in particular that Arteen is doubling down on? How big a market does a market have to be to get Arteen excited? What would Arteen advise founders potentially struggling from self doubt or lacking in confidence? What mental health tools would Arteen recommend to help with this? The biggest red flags for Arteen when being pitched to? Items Mentioned in Today's Episode: Email Address Tools: Rapportive Arteen's ProductHunt Collection Arteen's Fave Book: Fightclub Arteen's Marketplace Investments: Laurel & Wolf, ShipHawk Arteen's Fave Newsletter: Ben Evans Blog, Strictly VC Artene's Most Recent Investment: Policy Genius

Matt 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 Consumer Payments divisions. Prior to Amazon, Matt founded and was the CEO of Livebid, which was acquired by Amazon in 1999. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Matt made his way into entrepreneurship and then later the VC world? 2.) How did LiveBid come about when Matt was only 23 and how did he build the product and the initial user base? 3.) What was the hardest aspect of the entire LiveBid journey and how did Matt overcome it? 4.) How did Matt's life and work change moving from your own startup to working in a massive organization like amazon? What would Matt advise founders who have sold or are thinking of selling their companies to large corporations? 5.) Following a number of years at Amazon. How did you attempt to turn Digg around as CEO and was their anything you would have done differently? 6.) As EIR at Andreessen Horowitz what was it like, for Matt, working at a16z? Was there anything that surprised Matt about the move to venture? 7.) What would Matt say was the biggest lesson from working at these tech titans was? How has that affected how Matt runs Pro.com today?

David 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 close ties to the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial community have led him to invest personally in over 30 start-ups, including Practice Fusion, Postmates, Tile, Jaunt VR, and SeatMe. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: How David made his move into the world of venture capital? How David perceives the current seed funding environment? What makes Stanford the breeding ground of tech unicorns that it is? How to create a bay area style culture? What is the most frequent problem David sees startups encounter and how do they overcome it? How can entrepreneurs know which funding source to go for? Crowdfunding, VC, Angel? Why should startups take seed VC money over angel money? What is the difference? What are the key traits required to be a great founder? How can products with early adopter usage transition to a mass market product? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: David's Fave Books: Game Of Thrones David's Most Recent Investment: Jott As always you can follow Harry, David, The Twenty Minute VC and Maveron on Twitter right here!

Did 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 move from iPhone sales arbitrage to VC analyst!! How big does a market have to be to get VCs excited? Do VCs have preferences with regards to teams? Technical or not? Multiple founders or not? At the Seed stage what do VCs expect in the product itself? What are the key metrics investors look for when viewing startups for the 1st time? What are the different types of competition and how can founders determine whether they are a real threat? How can startups and mobile apps in particular, grow organically in the early stages? Items Mentioned in Today's Episode: Nicolas' Fave Book: What Makes Sami Run?: Budd Schulberg Nicolas Fave Newsletters: Benedict Evans Newsletter, Point Nine Newsletter Nicolas' Most Recent Investment: Green Blender: Superfood Smoothie Ingredients Delivered To Your Door As always you can follow Harry, Nicolas, The Twenty Minute VC and Point Nine Capital right here! Similarly if you want to see Harry in a more colourful light, head over to Instagram for copious amount of mojitos!

Mutaz 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. Prior to Squirrel, Mutaz has had a financial career that includes an LBS Masters in Finance and more than a decade at Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and PIMCO as a trader, strategist and marketer. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: How Mutaz made his movement from banking to being a startup founder? Was it difficult for Mutaz to leave the security of banking for the risky journey of entrepreneurship? What would Mutaz advise anyone looking to make the jump into the world of entrepreneurship? How did joining Techstars, help Squirrel as a company and Mutaz as a Founder? What is the Barclays Techstars process like? How can Founders decide which accelerator is right for them? What red flags should founders look for when investigating accelerators? How much equity do traditional accelerators take? What tips does Mutaz have to get the most out of the accelerator experience? How do individuals know when to give up the day job and become an entrepreneur? Items Mentioned in Todays Show: Mutaz's Fave Book: Exponential Organisations: Why New Organisations Are 10 Times Cheaper, Faster and Better Than Yours by Salim Ismail and Michael Malone Mutaz's Fave Reading Material: TechCrunch As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Squirrel on Twitter here!

Quote 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 variety of industries; he started his investing career as an Associate and then actively investing Member of Hyde Park Angels in 2009. Guy has led investments in numerous B2B software companies and is a Director at Geofeedia, InContext Solutions and Iris Mobile. Guy is also a Siebel Scholar, Kauffman Fellow and a co-inventor on two US Patents. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: How Guy made his move into the investing industry? How did Guy find the transition from academia to venture? Why is it crucial for startups to innovate, test and sell quickly? How can a startup determine whether their project is successful or if they should pivot? What are the three steps to the 18 month runway, all startups need? Do investors mind providing more financially to increase the runway? What can startups do to maximise the hype surrounding their business? Can hype ever be detrimental to a startup? What are Guy's preferences in terms of founders? How can a startup know when VCs are subtly rejecting them? Items Mentioned in Today's Show: Guy's Fave Book: Thinking in Time Guys Most Recent Investment: 250ok FarmLogs

Quote 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 accelerators including Silicon Valley’s Up West Labs, Cincinnati’s The Brandery, and San Francisco’s Highway 1. He is board member of The Trico Foundation and Venture for America. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: How Jonathon made his unorthodox way into starting his own fund at the age of 27? What was Jonathon's first investing strategy and how has it developed? What Jonathon believes is wrong with the typical VC? How are Ludlow different? How does Jonathan find the fundraising process as a VC? Other than capital what are the benefits of fundraising? How does Jonathon differentiate Ludlow from the huge amount of seed funds? What are the benefits of accelerators for Jonathon and Ludlow? How does Jonathon approach deal flow? What does Jonathon look for in founders? Does Jonathon have design input in his investments? How important are advisors for the young generation coming into this community? How Jonathon managed to convince the likes of Brad Feld and Eric Ries to mentor him? Items Mentioned In Todays Show Jonathon's Fave Book: The Thief of Always by Clive Barker Jonathon's Most Recent Investment: Rapify