Numbers Shape Investment Narrative Over 8‑10 Years
Biggest Investing Lesson from Mary Meeker: "She is the most qualitative investor I have ever worked with. She lays out all the sequential numbers historically for a company and then all the numbers going forward. She's seeing what the company will become on an 8-10 year time horizon. To win, use numbers to drive the narrative and story of an investment." @EverettRandle What have been your biggest lessons from working with Mary @JulietdeB1 @jaysimons @moodrowghani @eldsjal @mamoonha
Tiger Global Poised for Higher Returns via Databricks and OpenAI
Why Everyone is Wrong About Tiger Global Returns: "I think Tiger's gonna end up much better than anyone thought. They got a big stake in Databricks. They were early into OpenAI and Scale. They will benefit from liquidation preferences and preferred stock."...
Mega Funds Prioritize Capital Velocity Over Early-Stage Deals
Why the Mega Funds are Focused on Capital Velocity: "The North Star for @generalcatalyst @lightspeedvp is investment velocity. Talk to the principles and Jr Partners at these firms.... It does not matter what @ravi_lsvp @htaneja are saying; when you are writing $BN...
Peter Fenton Excels by Trusting Founder Conviction over Stages
What Makes @peterfenton So Good? " Peter does an amazing job following his founder conviction. He doesn't think about stages. When he finds a @howietl @btaylor that's what guides him." @EverettRandle What have been your biggest lessons from working with Peter @howietl...
Align Incentives: Invest With Partners to Test Conviction
The Biggest Investing Lesson from Peter Thiel: "Peter creates incentive structures to test the conviction level of partners. For example, you can personally invest alongside the fund in a deal you are leading. If you do not, he will ask, do...
Exit Tax Threatens $200M UK Investment and Jobs
I have invested $200M into the UK in the last five years. If @RachelReevesMP implements “Exit Tax” all that funding will go overnight. That is countless jobs, companies and people who will lose out. Rachel, you have managed to steal our...
AI Customer Support Flooded with Billion‑Dollar Funding
One market I cannot figure out in a world of AI is customer support. You have: Sierra Decagon GigaML Parloa Forethought Kore Cresta All of these have raised over $100M. and then oldies like Intercom Zendesk Help me out, how does this market shake out?
Send Investor Updates: Leverage Trust, Drive Growth
Founders, for the love of God; send investor updates. 1. Leverage them for help with customer intros, hires and fundraises. 2. Use them to create excitement and conversation about you in market. 3. Because these people have trusted you and...
Hummingbird's First Biotech Deal Nets $800M Stake
Let me just get this straight: Hummingbird owned 16% of BillionToOne at IPO. That is an $800M stake. This was their first ever biotech deal. These guys just play another game!!
Benchmark’s Portfolio Outshines All Other Funds
Of every fund of this vintage, I would rather have Benchmark’s portfolio than any other: Sierra ($10BN) Mercor ($10BN) Firework ($4BN) Legora ($2BN) Langchain ($1.3BN) Manus (one of most insane teams in AI) HeyGen ($80M ARR) Today it gets...
Navan's IPO: Who Wins? & Harvey Raises $150M at $8BN Price & Why Google Is a Buy, Amazon Is a...
The panel dissected Navan’s recent IPO, noting the company priced near the top of its range at a $5 billion valuation only to trade down to roughly $4.8‑4.9 billion, challenging Bill Gurley’s notion that IPO allocations are always free money. They explained...
Scaling Laws, Synthetic Data, and AI Myths Debunked
Joelle built the AI lab at Meta She worked and learnt from Zuck She is one of the leading minds in AI What everyone thinks they know about AI but get wrong 👇 - Why Scaling Laws Will Continue - Why You Can’t Buy Success...
Cohere's Chief Scientist, Joelle Pineau: Why Scaling Laws Will Continue & Future of Synthetic Data
Cohere’s chief scientist Joelle Pineau, a former Meta researcher, discussed the durability of scaling laws, the current limits of reinforcement learning (RL) and the shift toward enterprise‑focused, on‑premise AI models. She emphasized that while compute and data yield roughly linear...
Act Fast on Good VC Offers—Don’t Delay
Founders when you meet a VC and they give you a good offer. By running a “process” you are optimising for one of two things: 1. Price 2. The best partner If you have both, just do the deal now. Delay...
20VC Newsletter - 2nd November 2025
The newsletter recaps three recent 20VC episodes, highlighting AI’s shift from dollars to gigawatts, the commoditization of compute, and the rapid scaling of AI startups to $100 M revenue, while questioning high AI talent pay and the relevance of gross margins....
Why I Picked Angel Investing Over MBAs
A Princeton graduate who had long coveted a Stanford MBA decided to skip the program, treating the $120,000 tuition as a sunk cost and instead investing that money in early‑stage startups alongside angel investor Mike Maples. He framed the decision...
US VCs Dominate European Series A Funding
European VCs are getting their lunch eaten at Series A by the best in the US: 1. ElevenLabs, led by a16z @kirbyman01 2. Synthesia, led by FirstMark @mattturck 3. Legora, led by Benchmark @sarahtavel @chetanp 4. Fyxer, led by Madrona...
100M Views… Zero Impact?
The speaker notes that viral video clips—even those surpassing 100 million views—often generate negligible traffic to the underlying long‑form podcast, with download numbers remaining flat. He attributes this to platform operators who, backed by well‑funded data teams, promote engagement metrics that...
Tech Weekly: Fund Raises, OpenAI Shakeup, VC Insights
The only podcast you have to listen to every week. No politics. Just tech. - a16z Raises $10BN in New Funds - Mercor Raises $350M at $10BN - OpenAI Restructuring: Who Wins & Who Loses - Why IRR is a BS Metric - 3 Ways to...
European Investment Council Ranks #4 in Sifted’s Top 50
In another magnificent piece of work by Sifted 🤣 I would like to congratulate… The European Investment Council On being a top 50 performing investor. They are #4 according to Sifted. You can’t make this s*** up. 🤣 Too good Sifted....
Hire AI Generalists: Young Talent Beats Experience
" Companies underestimate 23 and 24 year-olds. The new playbook for these AI startups is actually gonna be much more about hire the AI generalist, this 23, 24, 25-year-old who's really native in AI." @DavidCahn6 Do you agree and how do...
Leverage Competitors' AGMs to Meet LPs Fast
The single best way to meet a lot of high quality LPs fast. Find out when your competitors AGMs are. Reach out to their LPs knowing they will be in town on those dates. They always want to fill their...
Margins Reveal Product Depth on Foundation AI Models
" I do think margins matter in a world of AI. They're a directional indicator of how much product you've built on top of the foundation models." @DavidCahn6 Do you agree and how do you think about margin in the...
Founders Drive Success; VCs Can only Assist
"The lesson that punches you in the stomach in venture is you can't make companies succeed as a venture capitalist. The company succeeds because of the founder and maybe you helped a little bit." Love to hear your thoughts on this...
Why AI Salaries Are Outrageous
Compensation for top AI talent has ballooned to eye-popping levels, with recent graduates from elite schools reportedly receiving $50–$100 million packages and marquee names being offered deals worth up to $1 billion. That surge reflects a frenzy in tech and...
Best Deals Often Come From Solo Term Sheets
"Most of the great investments I have made I was the only term sheet. This idea that the best companies are always super hot rounds is wrong." @DavidCahn6 Have your best investments always been competitive @chadbyers @infoarbitrage @honam @Alfred_Lin? https://t.co/MWp77TBZzR
Investors Chase Companies Hitting $0‑$100M Fast
"The best companies are going from $0-$100M in revenue very very quickly. As an investor, you have to believe that this company is going to be in the $0-$100M club". @DavidCahn6 Love to hear your thoughts on the required growth...
From $1M ARR to $1M Weekly Revenue
When 20VC led the Series A for Fyxer they were at $1M ARR. Today, they are adding $1M a week. 🚀 https://t.co/qvjg8Ke7uw
AI Winners, Margins, and Defence: Who Thrives?
Our last episode with David Cahn was one of the most downloaded of last year. This episode today is even better. - The Winners & Losers in AI - The $0-$100M Club: Is Triple, triple, double, double dead? - The Future of Defence: Who...
Share LPs Across Non‑competing Funds to Accelerate Fundraising
The secret to LP intros that no one tells you. Make friends in alternate, non competitive categories (growth, secondaries etc etc). Share LPs. Discovery is the hardest thing in fundraising. Non-competitive managers sharing LPs is needle moving.
20VC Newsletter - 26th October 2025
20VC’s latest newsletter synthesizes three interviews with practical takeaways for founders and investors: Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz laid out a repeatable M&A playbook that rebuilds frontends in months and full backends to hit product scale in about nine months (vs....
Scaling $1M‑$50M: Execution Beats Early Milestones
I do not care how long it takes for a company to get to $1M in revenue. But I do care desperately, how long it takes for a company to get from $1M-$50M in revenue. The road to PMF is...
Most Common Growth Mistake (And How to Avoid It)
The video warns that the most common growth mistake is reflexively copying competitors’ tactics without grounding decisions in customer context or data. The speaker recounts a Pinterest case where teams replicated Facebook’s seven-part onboarding and product flow, spent weeks implementing...
Tiny Check, Massive Return: Don't Underestimate Winners
My single best investment from 20VC Fund I broke advice everyone gave me. Don’t write small checks. If it is less than 1% of the fund, it won’t move the needle. Wrong. I wrote a $50K check. Today it is...
Deel Acquires: Replace Core Assets, Rebuild Adjacent
"At Deel, we do two types of acquisitions. 1. Buy an asset in our core market. Buy the team, revenue, bring them in-house, rip and replace their infrastructure with ours pretty fast. 2. Buy smaller companies that are in adjacent...
Project Europe Delivers Rapid Product-Market Fit, Secures Major Wins
Project Europe has product market fit so much faster and so much stronger than even we hoped. In the first 6 months: - 10 cracked teams invested in So what… of those 10: - 1 acquired by category leader - 1...
Own Your Software: Essential for Scaling Success
"A lot of SaaS is not tailored enough to the needs of the company. Owning most of the software makes a significant difference in what you can do. It is the dumbest thing to do when you are small. It...
Alfred Lin: Deep Business Insight Makes Board Exceptional
"I would have most liked to have @Alfred_Lin on my board. He is one of the best investors in the world. He understands the business he invests in a lot more deeply than other board members." @Bouazizalex What have been...
Everything You Need To Know About Venture
Harry Stebbings recounts founding his venture firm from a London bedroom with no contacts or capital and growing it into an $850 million manager that has backed $12 billion in companies, including four valued at $10 billion. He frames fundraising...
Deel’s $300M Raise Reveals Aggressive Acquisition Strategy
I fricking hate podcasts where the guest does a podcast tour to promote something. @Bouazizalex just raised $300M+ at a $17BN+ valuation. He did one podcast to discuss the round and the crazy last 12 months. 20VC. - Raising $300M from Ribbit, a16z and...
Deel CEO, Alex Bouaziz on Raising $300M+ at a $17BN Valuation
Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz said the company has raised just over $300 million at a valuation above $17 billion in a round co-led by Ribbit Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Coatue. He highlighted that Deel has been profitable for three years,...
Angel Fundraise Details Reveal Top 1% Founders
You can tell a top 1% founder purely from how they structure the angel component of a fundraise. The blurb they suggest. The forwardable email they send for each. The specific angels they want in. All says so much about their...
Speed Is a Feature of the Best
Just sent a deal to a dear friend and mentor who is one of the greatest of our time. Sent at 8:12AM PST and response provided to me and founder by 8:18AM. Speed is a feature of the best.
20VC Newsletter - 19th October 2025
The 20VC newsletter (Oct. 19, 2025) distills three podcast episodes featuring Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon‑Brookes, investors Rory O’Driscoll, Jason Lemkin and Roger Ehrenberg, and Warp CEO Zach Lloyd, highlighting how AI will expand software development, reshape pricing models, and leave...
Deel Secures $300M Funding, Valued Over $17B
Today @Bouazizalex announced that @deel have raised $300M at a $17BN+ valuation. He only did one podcast to announce the round and discuss the last 12 months. 20VC… coming on Monday 👇 https://t.co/n4ezdUmA5A
Tech Deals Surge: Meta, Goldman, SoftBank Drive 2025 Venture Landscape
The only podcast you have to listen to every week. No politics. Just tech. - Thinking Machines Co-Founder Joins Meta for $3.5BN - Goldman Sachs Acquires Industry Ventures for $665M - Softbank Borrows $5BN Against ARM Holding to Invest More Into OpenAI. Spotify 👉 https://t.co/FMWC2UfrVG Youtube...
Y Combinator and A16z Dominate VC Under Stellar Leadership
Two brands in VC that are crushing right now more than any other: 1. @ycombinator: Under @garrytan leadership. Another level achieved. 👏 @t_blom is one of the greatest early stage investors right now. 2. @a16z: @martin_casado is a true OG....
Product Fit and Partnership: Keys to Seed Success
Two reasons why 99% of seed stage companies don’t make it to Series A: 1. They don’t build something people want. 2. Co-Founder breakup. Avoid these two and you are the 1%.
AI Takes 20 of Top 30 Secondary Spots
Just seen @SetterVC's latest report on the most in-demand secondaries for private companies in Q3: Top 3 Risers in the Top 30: 1. @canva up 8 places to #12 2. @CrusoeAI up 7 places to #11 3. @AnthropicAI up 2 places to #1 and...
Europe’s Top Founders Champion Browsers for AI Agents
Europe has some of the best young founders in the world. They are hungrier, they are more ambitious and they are more talented than ever. Charles is one of the best of the best. LFG Europe 🚀