Gili Raanan is the Founder of Cyberstarts and one of the most successful seed investors ever. In his 19 company portfolio, Gili has invested in a decacorn (Wiz), seven unicorns and had three others acquired. Prior to Cyberstarts, Gili spent over 15 years as a General Partner @ Sequoia Capital investing in some of the world's best cyber security companies.
In Today's Episode with Gili Raanan We Discuss:
1. From Founder to World's Best Seed Investor:
- How did Gili make the move into the world of venture with Sequoia?
- How did Mike Moritz and Doug Leone recruit him? What was that process like?
- What are 1-2 of Gili's biggest takeaways from working with Doug and Mike?
2. How to Find and Pick the Best Founders:
- What did Mike Moritz teach Gili about getting to know founders?
- Why does Gili look for the pain in the eyes of the founder? What questions does he ask?
- What are the most common signals of truly exceptional founders, having backed 7 unicorns?
- Why does Gili believe that both market and product is BS? Why are the founders all that matters?
- Why does Gili believe that the founder does not have to be a domain expert in a market to create a massive company in that market?
3. What it Takes to be the Best Seed Investor:
- Why does Gili believe that the best seed investors do not have theses?
- How important does Gili feel the brand of the VC firm is? What were his biggest lessons on brand from spending 15 years as a General Partner @ Sequoia?
- Why does Gili believe that the best investors are never happy? When you are happy, you lose.
4. 2021 is Back: Pricing, Uprounds and more
- Why does Gili believe that the best companies are always expensive and will always be expensive at every round?
- Why does Gili believe that 2021 pricing and funding is back?
- Is this a good thing? How does Gili advise founders on how much to raise and what valuation to set with investors?
- What does Gili believe are the single biggest sins from the zero interest rate environment?