20VC Newsletter - 19th January 2025
Here are the transcripts and top takeaways from 20VC episodes released this last week.
Monday’s episode with Shervin Pishevar, Investor @ Uber:
Download the full transcript:
My 6 key takeaways:
How a16z Lost $7BN on Uber
Travis went with a16z at first but the deal fell through.
He asked me if I was still down & I flew to Dublin immediately.
I signed a $20M term sheet at $290M at his hotel room & got another $6.5M in on secondaries.
That investment is worth almost $7BN today.
Where Was Travis and Uber Too Soft?
We should have been fiercer on Lyft earlier.
Lyft introduced their UberX before us; they got in legal trouble & we hesitated.
They beat us by 6 months & it cost 30% of the market share.
Uber Should be a Trillion Dollar Company: The Great Destruction of Value in SV History
If Travis and Emil were still in Uber it would be a trillion dollar company today.
Two of the greatest minds in SV were taken out of Uber when they got fired.
It is the greatest value destruction that’s happened since firing Steve Jobs at Apple.
Why Great Founders Create New Industries
Travis wanted to reshape car ownership.
Hyperloop was going to reshape transportation.
The best founders don’t build companies, they create new industries.
Quantum Means We Will Solve Every Disease Known to Man
Quantum & AI will merge, even at the chip set level.
We will find cures to every kind of disease known to mankind.
It will revolutionize our life; in the next 20 years we will reach insane levels of longevity.
Turning 25K Into $4M With the Best Fund Ever
I put $25K into @Sacca’s fund.
It turned into $4M.
It was a legendary fund; it returned $1.5BN out of $10M.
Wednesday’s episode with Victor Riparbelli, Co-Founder & CEO @ Synthesia:
Download the full transcript:
My 7 key takeaways:
Why Elon will Beat Sam Altman & Anthropic
There is more asymmetric upside in backing Elon.
Owning X alongside building LLMs is really powerful.
X will provide real time information to feed models.
100Ms of existing users could start using their LLMs.
The Future of Content with AI
We're going to truly democratize content creation.
You will be able to bring your ideas to life using just your imagination.
The price of creating content is gonna go to zero.
The best ideas are going to win.
Why Video Games are More Valuable than University
Playing computer games as a child is one of the best indicators of future success.
They are a microcosm of the universe.
They train you to make several decisions rapidly & to understand the implications of each decision.
There’s a constant feedback loop.
Why Synthesia Would Not Have Been A Success if They Raised a Large Seed Round
Operating under constraints helped us focus on our customers.
It helped us find product market fit quickly.
Money gives you options.
The more options you have, the more discipline gets lost.
Why Competitors Make You Better & Being First is not Always Best
Observing what competitors are doing is extremely powerful.
We listened to feedback signals in the market to build a superior product.
Our competitors did a lot of marketing in the category.
But we clearly had a better product, so it benefitted us.
Biggest Mistake AI Companies Make Today
The real signal isn’t signing a contract, it’s renewal.
Too many AI startups optimize for closing new contracts, but not for renewal.
Unless you’ve hit the right thing, you’re in for a whole bunch of trouble.
Do Americans Work Harder Than Europeans?
I don’t have a strong sense that people work harder in the Valley.
A percentage of people there work incredibly hard, but we have those people in Europe too.
It’s a personality trait that’s dispersed around the world.
Friday’s episode with Eran Zinman, Co-Founder & Co-CEO @ Monday.com:
Download the full transcript:
My 6 key takeaways:
The $12BN Company That Could Not Raise
We found it really hard to raise funds.
People just didn’t understand our idea.
We also probably didn’t do a good job raising money before.
Revenue Growth of a $12BN Company
We grew rapidly from $6M ARR to:
$18M after 1 year.
$50M after 2 years.
$120M after 3 years.
It was at $40-60M before we even added a sales team.
Why Everyone Gets Goal Setting Wrong
Most people will think about a plan around what they did last year, and make small tweaks.
I focus on how to go above & beyond.
It changes how I think about what can be done and how I can achieve it.
The $12BN CEO That Does Not Email
I’m an extreme believer in focus.
I never got anything good out of an email & I don’t do investments.
Once you start being managed by external tools, it’s a huge distraction.
Focus on what is most important for the company.
Why The Hardest Thing is the Thing You Have To Do
Founders tend to avoid the hardest problems to fix in their business.
But once you tackle them, it alters the course of the whole company.
If something is very painful, that's the right time to fix it.
$BN Founder Lessons from Building his First Startup
My first company was a disaster. I felt the product wasn’t ready & I kept adding features.
I realized the reason was that I was too afraid to fail.
When I built Monday, I embraced failure.
Fail quickly, fail often & learn fast.
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:
Hussein Kanji, Founder @ Hoxton Ventures
George Sivulka, Founder & CEO @ Hebbia
Carlos Delatorre, CRO @ Harness
Thank you for reading 20VC.
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