20VC Newsletter - 15th Sept 2024
Here are the transcripts and top takeaways from 20VC episodes released this last week!
Monday’s episode with Sean Rad, Founder @ Tinder:
Download the full transcript:
My 6 key takeaways:
Founders Have to Detach Themselves
I realized Tinder was not my identity & that mindset wasn’t healthy.
Our most successful moments were when we were a little detached & saw the bigger picture beyond the individuals.
It’s not about you.
Is PG Wrong on Founder Mode?
Great founders put the company before themselves.
They are intellectually honest enough to know when it’s time for someone else to take over.
Founder energy is required for success, but you can have different founders over time.
Tinder Could Have Reached 1BN Users
We used to chart the growth rate & predict how fast we would get to 1BN users.
We would have reached it in 3 months if we maintained the trajectory in the first year.
We were growing so fast we had to get creative at solving problems because we couldn’t hire fast enough.
Why You Should Redesign Your Product Every Year
We had a rule to redesign Tinder every year.
We didn’t want users to get bored & our team to become complacent.
It was a brilliant exercise & took our product to the next level.
The First Tinder Feature That Was a Cash Machine
We launched the super like as an upgraded feature.
We gave 1 free superlike to everyone to remove the sense of desperation.
Charging for that allowed us to create better products & create more revenue.
How Social Media Is Violating Free Will
They are algorithmically picking what content people see.
It’s like turning on the TV & not being able to switch channels.
It was a lot healthier with a follower-based economy.
Wednesday’s episode with David Schneider, GP @ Coatue:
Download the full transcript:
My 7 key takeaways:
Do Boards Need Operating Experience
I don’t care if someone has been on 8 other SaaS boards when interviewing potential board members.
I look at whether they have done anything themselves.
There are enough people in venture with hands-on experience so it’s good to have a mix.
Selling to Other Startups Means S**t
If you’re a business selling to other startups as your source of revenue, I am going to discount some of your future opportunities.
Smaller companies are more susceptible to the waves of the market.
You need to show me proof you can sell to a combination of customers.
People Buy Product for Three Reasons
Three things:
They want to make money
They want to save money
It keeps them off the front page of the newspaper.
We had to build 3x $100M ARR businesses in 3 years
That was the goal we had for it to be viable.
That’s equivalent to some of the fastest growing startups in Silicon Valley.
We did all of them at ServiceNow & it was extremely hard.
WTF Does CS Actually Do
I could never get customer success to tell me what they actually did that makes us money.
I was funding more & more people in support & sales.
So I got rid of them.
The Big Question That Most Investors Do Not Ask
Have they been through a renewal cycle yet?
Did the ACV grow? Did they add more product to it? Did it shrink?
If it didn’t renew, that's a big problem.
The Most Dangerous VCs Are Seagulls
They fly into a meeting, take a s**t, then fly away.
You need to set the tone & agenda for the management team.
I led ServiceNow & Data Domain reviews with 3 things that were green & 3 things that were red.
If you bring me anything not on my red list, it isn’t welcome.
Friday’s episode with Mike Hudack, former CPO @ Monzo & Deliveroo, & former Director of Product Management @ Facebook:
Download the full transcript:
My 5 key takeaways:
The Real Art of Product
It’s to understand what people want.
Your job is to help them achieve that with the minimal amount of work.
A good product does not need tons of buttons that can do everything.
Facebook Used Vending Machines to Save Productivity
We had vending machines all over the office with free headphones, laptops, etc.
They understood your time should be spent on coding.
Spending a couple hundred dollars on equipment is worth it.
The Structure of Every Product Team
They should be between 6-8 people:
Most should be engineers
1 data scientist
1 designer
PM is optional.
There is No Room for Nice to Have
The cost will always be higher, and the value will always be lower than expected.
We tried to build audience insights at Facebook as a nice to have.
It took an enormous amount of technology, and we could have spent that time building something more valuable.
The Secret to Success is Low Expectations
I always tell my team they should put their best foot forward, but keep their expectations low.
If it works, they are happy and forget they ever had low expectations.
If it doesn’t, they are emotionally prepared to fix it.
Let us know what your big takeaways from this week’s shows were in the comments below!
Thank you for reading, and don’t miss the great guests we have next week:
Shardul Shah, Partner @ Index Ventures
Akshay Kothari, Co-Founder @ Notion
Phil Carter, Growth Advisor @ Elemental Growth
Thank you for reading 20VC.
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