Aydin Senkut is the Founder and Managing Partner of Felicis. An original super angel turned multi-stage investor, he has been named on the Forbes Midas List for the past nine years (2014-2022). Felicis has been an incredible 16-year journey starting with a $4M Fund I back in 2006, their most recent fund in 2021 was $900M. Along the way, Felicis has invested in over 45 unicorns including Adyen, Canva, Shopify, Notion, Opendoor, and Plaid. Prior to starting Felicis, Aydin was a Senior Manager at Google where he spent an incredible 6 years.
1.) The Founding of Felicis:
2.) Fund Mechanics: Building a Portfolio
3.) Aydin Senkut: The Investor
4.) The Venture Landscape:
Aydin’s Favourite Book: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Oliver Jay (OJ) is one of the most successful sales leaders of the last decade. Most recently, OJ spent 6 years at Asana where he was hired as the company's first revenue leader. As CRO, OJ was responsible for product-led and sales-led revenue and grew the team from less than 20 to over 450. Before Asana, OJ spent 4 years at Dropbox in a period of hyper-scaling for the business where OJ was Head of APAC and LATAM. At Dropbox, OJ scaled the sales team from 0 to 50 while tripling ARR. If that was not enough, OJ is also an independent board member at Grab, the leading Super app in Southeast Asia.
1.) Entry into Sales:
2.) The Playbook:
3.) The Hiring Process:
4.) Sales Onboarding:
Oren Zeev is the Founding Partner @ Zeev Ventures and one of the OGs of solo capitalism. Oren has an incredible portfolio including investments in Audible, Houzz, Chegg, Riverside, Tipalti, TripActions, and Firebolt to name a few. Oren is also very unlike any other VC firm, he does not employ any associates, principals, or staff. He doesn't have partners or partner meetings. No LP meetings. No processes. No investment committees or memos. Nada. Oren is doing it differently. Prior to starting Zeev Ventures, Oren spent 12 years as a GP @ Apax Partners where he c-headed their technology practice in their Silicon Valley office.
1.) Origins into Venture:
2.) Deployment Pace:
3.) Ownership:
4.) Price Sensitivity:
5.) Diversification:
6.) Oren Zeev: AMA:
Oren’s Most Recent Investment: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
Ian Siegel is the Founder and CEO @ ZipRecruiter, a leading online employment marketplace that uses AI-driven matching technology to actively connect millions of businesses and job seekers to their next great opportunity. Since co-founding the company in 2010, more than 1.8M employers have used ZipRecruiter to find their next great hire and over 500 million job applications have been submitted through the site. Prior to their IPO last year, Ian bootstrapped the company for many years to many millions in revenue before taking venture funding from IVP, Wellington Management and Basepoint Ventures to name a few. Before founding ZipRecruiter, Ian served in key leadership roles at CitySearch, Stamps.com, and Rent.com (an eBay company).
1.) The Founding of Olo:
2.) The Art of Great Storytelling
3.) CEO's Do As Little As Possible
4.) The Art of Hiring:
5.) Parenting and Marriage:
Ian’s Favourite Book: Living with a SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet
Darius Contractor is one of the pre-eminent growth leaders of the last decade. As a growth OG, he has been VP Growth @ Airtable, where he led the growth, engineering, and product teams. Before Airtable, Darius was Head of Product Growth @ Facebook Messenger and finally, before Facebook, Darius spent 4 years as Head of Growth Engineering at Dropbox; here, Darius helped drive Dropbox to $100M in net new revenue through Dropbox Business. If that was not enough, Darius is also an active angel and fund investor with a portfolio including Calm, Airtable, Clubhouse, Census and LP checks in Maven Ventures and Long Journey Ventures.
1.) Darius Contractor: Entry into Growth:
2.) When is the Right Time:
3.) Who To Hire:
4.) Onboarding and Integration:
David Fialkow is the Co-Founder and Managing Director @ General Catalyst, one of the leading venture firms of the last decade with a portfolio including Stripe, Snap, Airbnb, Anduril, Canva and many more amazing names. Prior to founding General Catalyst with Joel Cutler, David was a serial entrepreneur building and selling 4 successful companies.
1.) Everything Great Starts Small:
2.) Creating a Firm: The Early Days
3.) The Partnership:
4.) Doing the Impossible: Generational Transition:
Mentioned in Today’s Episode with David Fialkow:
David’s Favourite Book: The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People
Tony Fadell, often referred to as the father of the iPod is one of the leading product thinkers of the last 30 years as one of the makers of some of the most game-changing products in society from the iPhone and iPod to more recently founding Nest, creating the Nest Thermostat, leading to their $3.2BN acquisition by Google. Tony recently released Build, this is a masterclass taking 30 years of product and company building lessons and packaging them for you, check it out here.
In Today's Episode with Tony Fadell:
1.) Everything Great Starts Small:
2.) Data and Brand:
3.) Lessons from Steve Jobs on Product Marketing:
4.) Hiring Product Teams:
5.) Apple Watch, iPod and Apple HiFi:
Mentioned in Today's Episode with Tony Fadell:
Tony's Favourite Book: Only the Paranoid Survive
Fabrice Grinda is the Founding Partner @ FJ Labs, with over 700 investments, Fabrice has had over 250 exits and built a portfolio including Alibaba, Coupang, Airbnb, Instacart, Flexport, and Delivery Hero, and many more. Prior to FJ Labs, Fabrice served as CEO for three multinational companies; including OLX, one of the largest websites in the world with over 300 million unique visitors per month. As a result of his incredible investing success, Fabrice was named the #1 Angel Investor in the world by Forbes.
In Today's Episode with Fabrice Grinda:
1.) Everything Great Starts Small:
2.) WTF is Going On: The Market Today
3.) The Optimistic Case:
4.) The Great Stagnation:
5.) The Catastrophe:
6.) What this Means for Venture:
Mentioned in Today's Episode with Fabrice Grinda:
Fabrice's Favourite Book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Jason Lemkin is the Founder and Managing Partner @ SaaStr, a social community of 500,000+ SaaS founders and a $100M venture fund. In the past, Jason has made investments in the likes of Algolia, Talkdesk, Pipedrive, and RevenueCat to name a few. Prior to SaaStr, Jason was the Co-Founder and CEO @ Echosign, backed by Emergence Capital, Echosign was bought by Adobe and is Adobe Sign as we know it today.
1.) Origins into Venture:
2.) The Importance of Ownership & Multi-Stage Funds
3.) Building Your Sales Team
4.) Boards and VC Value Add:
Jason’s Most Recent Investment: Owner
Anne Wojcicki is the Founder & CEO @ 23andMe, offering DNA testing with the most comprehensive ancestry breakdown, personalized health insights, and more.
Harley Finkelstein is the President of Shopify. Over the last 12 years, Harley has partnered with Tobi to the tune of building Shopify’s revenue to over $4.6BN in 2021 and the team to over 10,000 employees.
Deena Shakir is a Partner at Lux Capital, one of the leading firms investing in emerging science and technology ventures at the outermost edges of what is possible.
Eric Liaw is a General Partner @ IVP, one of the leading later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms of the last decade with $8.7 billion of committed capital and a 40-year IRR of 43.1%.
Scott Dietzen is Vice Chairman of the Board of Pure Storage and served as the Company’s CEO from 2010 to 2017. Under his leadership, Pure grew to thousands of employees and
completed an IPO in 2015.
Harley Miller is the Founder and Managing Partner @ Left Lane Capital, one of the fastest-growing growth equity firms of the last five years. Just yesterday, Left Lane announced the closing of their new fund taking their AUM to over $2BN with an early portfolio including M1 Finance, Masterworks, Choco, GoStudent, to name a few. Prior to founding Left Lane, Harley spent over 9 years at Insight Partners investing in the likes of DeliveryHero, HelloFresh, N26, Calm, Udemy and many more breakout companies.
1.) Origins into Venture:
2.) Left Lane: Fundraising
3.) Left Lane: Firm Building
4.) Left Lane: Investing and Consumer
Harley’s Most Recent Investment: Masterworks
Noah Glass is the Founder and CEO @ Olo, the interface between restaurants and the on-demand world powering millions of orders per day. Olo is an incredible tale of capital efficiency, at IPO the company had a net burn of just $6M with $122M in ARR. Noah raised from some of the best in the business with names such as David Frankel @ Founder Collective, Danny Meyer, Scott Shleifer @ Tiger Global, all on the cap table. Prior to founding Olo, Noah was International Expansion Manager for Endeavour Global, launching the first African Endeavour affiliate. If that was not enough, Noah is also on the board of Portillo's, Share our Strength and the Culinary Institute for America.
1.) The Founding of Olo:
2.) Capital Efficiency: Scaling to $122M ARR with $6M Net Burn
3.) Decision Making: The Secret
4.) Noah Glass: The Father and Husband
Noah’s Favourite Book: Setting the Table by Danny Meyer
Mitch Tarica is Head of North America Sales at Zoom Video Communications. Before joining Zoom, Mitch spent over 5 years at RingCentral including as Senior VP of Worldwide Sales and Customer Success. Finally, before RingCentral, Mitch was at Oracle for over 7 years in numerous different sales roles.
1.) Entry into Sales:
2.) The Playbook:
3.) The Hiring Process:
4.) Sales Onboarding:
Deena Shakir is a Partner at Lux Capital, one of the leading firms investing in emerging science and technology ventures at the outermost edges of what is possible. Deena has led a number of investments including in Maven Clinic, Mos, Ramp, Alife and SteadyMD to name a few. Before joining Lux, Deena was a Partner at GV and previously led product partnerships at Google for early-stage products in healthcare, AI/ML and search at Google. Before tech and venture, Deena was an aspiring anthropologist, journalist, diplomat, aid worker and was a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of State under Secretary Clinton. There Deena helped launch President Obama’s first Global Entrepreneurship Summit in 2010.
1.) Origins into Venture:
2.) Competition in Venture:
3.) Deena Shakir: The Person
4.) Diversity and Inclusion: We Should Be Optimistic
Deena's Favourite Book: The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption
Deena's Most Recent Investment: Mos: Banking for Students
Bill Cillufo is Partner and Head of International Investments at QED, one of the leading fintech venture firms today with a portfolio including Nubank, Kavak, Klarna, Quinto Andar and Bitso to name a few. As for Bill, he has led investments in Nubank, Loft, Wagestream and Creditas among others. Prior to joining QED, he spent nearly 20 years at Capital One, spanning several roles and leading several businesses. During Bill’s last 3 years at Capital One, he led its Co-Brand and Private Label credit card business, building the business nearly from scratch to one of the top few players in the US market.
1.) Origins into Venture:
2.) The Landscape: What is Happening?
3.) Bill Cillufo: The Investor
4.) QED: The Expansion
Bill’s Favourite Book: Tom Clancy: The Hunt for Red October
Bill’s Most Recent Investment: Refyne
Aparna Chennapragada is Chief Product Officer @ Robinhood, the company revolutionizing consumer finance with commission-free investing, and tools to help shape your financial future. As for Aparna, prior to Robinhood, she spent an incredible 12 years at Google, most recently as VP and GM for Consumer Shopping and also as the lead AR and Visual Search products. Aparna is also an active angel investor with a portfolio including Khatabook, Statsig and On Deck to name a few. If that was not enough, Aparna is also a board member at Capital One.
1.) Origins in Product:
2.) Customer Discovery: 101
3.) The Hiring Process:
4.) The Onboarding Process:
Items Mentioned in Today's Episode with Aparna Chennapragada
Aparna's Fave Resource: Shishir's Executive Onboarding
Henrique Dubugras is the Founder and CEO @ Brex, the company re-imagining financial systems so every growing company can realize its full potential. To date, Henrique has raised over $1.1BN for Brex from some of the best including Ribbit, Greenoaks, DST, IVP, Caffeinated Capital and Elad Gil to name a few. Henrique is also a board member at Mercado Libre. Prior to co-founding Brex, Henrique co-founded Pagar.me, there he scaled the company to $15BN in GMV and over 100 people before selling the company in 2016.
1.) The Founding of Brex:
2.) Hiring: The Trials and Tribulations
3.) Product Expansion and Marketing:
4.) Henrique: The Leader
Henrique’s Favourite Book: The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth
Domm Holland is the Founder and CEO @ Fast.
Last week Fast announced they would be shutting down the company.
In this exclusive 20VC episode we discuss:
Avichal Garg is Co-Founder & Partner @ Electric Capital, last month Electric announced they had raised $1BN for their new fund making them one of the largest independent and crypto-native VC firms in the world. As for Avichal, prior to Electric, he was an investor in crypto projects such as Anchorage, Bitwise, Lightning Labs, and OpenSea and unicorns such as Airtable, Cruise, Deel, Figma, Notion and many more. On the operating side, Avichal successfully sold his last company to Facebook where he became Director of Product Management for the Local product group, a team of 400 engineers responsible for billions in revenue.
1.) Origins into Venture:
2.) The Landscape: Crypto Investing
3.) Crypto Firms vs Traditional VC Firms:
4.) Tokens - Equity - Liquidity:
5.) DAOs: 101
Avichal’s Favourite Book: The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization
Avichal’s Most Recent Investment: Magic Eden
Eric Liaw is a General Partner @ IVP, one of the leading later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms of the last decade with $8.7 billion of committed capital and a 40-year IRR of 43.1%. At IVP eric has led investments in Datadog, Github, Klarna, Robinhood and UiPath to name a few. Prior to joining IVP, Eric was with Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) and was actively involved in originating, executing and managing investments, including Netflix, Zillow and eHarmony. As a result of his investing success, Eric was recognized by GrowthCap as one of the Top 25 Software Investors of 2021 and 2020.
1.) Origins into Venture:
2.) Eric Liaw: The Investor:
3.) The Market: Venture
4.) Eric Liaw: The Person
Eric’s Favourite Book: No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention
Eric’s Most Recent Investment: Aiven
Brian Hale is Vice President of Consumer Product & Growth @ Doordash. Before joining Doordash, Brian spent an incredible 10 years at Facebook, most recently as VP of Product Growth working across Instagram, Messenger, Whatsapp and more. Prior to Facebook, Brian was Director of Growth @ Uptake.com and it all started for Brian in 1999 working at ACDSee in Canada where he was asked to “figure out that search engine thing”.
1.) Brian Hale: Entry into Growth:
2.) When is the Right Time:
3.) Who To Hire:
4.) Onboarding and Integration:
Thomas Tull is a leading entrepreneur and investor as the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Tulco, LLC. he has made notable investments in the likes of FIGS, Colossal, IL MAKIAGE, Pinterest, Zoox and Oculus Rift. Previously, Tull was the founder, CEO and Chairman of Legendary Entertainment, the film company that produced blockbusters including The Dark Knight trilogy, 300 and The Hangover franchise. Outside of his investment work, Thomas is a trustee of Carnegie Mellon University, Yellowstone Forever, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution. If that was not enough, Tull is also part of the ownership group of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the six-time Super Bowl champions.
1.) From Laundromats to Legendary Entertainment:
2.) Thomas Tull: The Investor:
3.) Legendary Entertainment:
4.) The Macro:
Thomas' Favourite Book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Thomas' Most Recent Investment: Colossal
Eduardo Vivas is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Curated, a network where product experts monetize their passion and help consumers make the perfect purchase. To date, Eddie has raised over $141M from some of the best including CapitalG, Greylock and Forerunner to name a few. Eddie is also a stellar angel investor with a portfolio including Telegram, Truebill, AppLovin and Dollar Shave Club among others. Prior to Curated, Eddie spent 3 years at Linkedin as Head of Talent Solutions, following his startup, Bright, being acquired by them in 2014.
1.) The Founding of Curated:
2.) The Compound Startup:
3.) Hiring: Missionaries not Mercenaries
4.) Equity and Compensation:
Eddie’s Favourite Book: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
Olivia Nottebohm is the Chief Revenue Officer @ Notion where she leads the Sales, Marketing, Customer Success and Customer Experience teams. Prior to Notion, Olivia was the COO @ Dropbox where she achieved the first 4 quarters of profitable growth. Before Dropbox Olivia spent over 5 years at Google including as VP Cloud GTM Operations and Global SMB Sales. Finally, before Google, Olivia spent a whopping 15 years at McKinsey & Company.
1.) Origins:
2.) Good vs Great Operations (Ops):
3.) The Hiring Process:
4.) Cross-Functional Communication:
Grow Fast or Die Slow: The role of profitability in sustainable growth
Jeff Lieberman is the Managing Director @ Insight Partners, one of the leading investing franchises of the last 25 years with their most recent flagship fund announced earlier this year being a staggering $20BN. As for Jeff, over the last 24 years at Insight, he has led investments in leading companies such as Qualtrics, DeliveryHero, HelloFresh, Cvent, Mimecast, and Udemy. As a result of his many investing successes, he has been selected by AlwaysOn as a Venture Capital 100 winner and by Forbes as a member of the Midas List.
1.) Origins into Venture:
2.) Jeff Lieberman: The Investor:
3.) Insight: The Firm
4.) AMA:
Jeff’s Favourite Book: Man's Search For Meaning
Jeff’s Most Recent Investment: Choco