20VC Newsletter - 9th February 2025
Here are the transcripts and top takeaways from 20VC episodes released this last week.
Monday’s episode with Nabeel Hyatt, GP @ Spark Capital:
Download the full transcript:
My 8 key takeaways:
How VCs Should Be and Need to Be Thinking in a New World of AI
You need to think like a founder.
You need to be okay with a small team that makes subjective bets.
You need to think about what a founder needs today, which is drastically different from 4 years ago.
Why Being Product Focused Is So Key to Investing Well
It’s not about giving someone a check because they built a nice website.
I try to learn about the humans behind the product.
It’s about their decisions behind the product, understanding who they are & what they’re going to do from there.
Why the Industry Is Run by Juniors and Why That Is F**ked
They are not waiting for an exit – they just want a promotion.
The quickest way to get there is through markups.
They don’t need to figure out what the future is – they just need to figure out what the firm one stage after them is interested in & invest a month earlier.
Why You Cannot Be an Early and Growth Investor at the Same Time
It is a different process & a different muscle.
Doing the job simply at the highest level is extremely hard.
You should not try to play two sports.
Your Conversation With Your VC on How to Raise the Next Round
I ask founders what they can surprise the VC with in the next year that they weren’t asking?
VCs are trying to invest in the best & they want you to exceed expectations.
They need to tell that story to the VCs.
Why if You Are Not in the Valley You Are Not Doing Everything You Can to Win
Founders who are all in are doing everything they can to put themselves in the best case to win.
They need to be at the dinners & recruit the best people in AI.
All of those people are in SF right now.
Does DeepSeek Change Anything for Anthropic
I don’t know if DeepSeek changes anything in the way I think about the future.
I don’t believe the $1TN training was the only barrier to entry for making these models.
If we believed that only capital was going to win we would not have invested in Anthropic.
The Bull Case for Anthropic
Having a user interface gives them a competitive advantage that no research lab has.
If you own the interface you have a chance to iterate & stay ahead of everybody else.
It’s not just model quality – it’s also your ability to innovate, your taste & execution speed.
Wednesday’s episode with Max Levchin, Co-Founder & CEO @ Affirm:
Download the full transcript:
My 7 key takeaways:
A Players Hire A Players and Why B Players Are Dangerous
A players hire other A players because they know the team dynamics will make them better.
B players hire C players to make themselves look better.
That is the real danger of B players.
Why You Want People Who Are Extremely Opinionated
You need someone who has really strong opinions & doesn't offend anyone.
You need to cushion the blow – but if you don’t give the blow you will ship garbage.
Why You Should Only Study Failure and Never Success
With successes, the texture of each individual decision is harder to detect.
You can learn so much more by asking how you can do better.
You need to be asking questions in terms of failure.
How to Create a Post Mortem Culture?
Every time we have an incident we immediately create a separate log.
We have someone compile all the data into a white paper & have the entire team comment on it.
Remove any sort of apologizing/responsibility taking – Whoever feels responsible should be able to freely comment on it.
Why a Writing Culture Is Better Than Live Rants
We have a post-mortem depot documenting everything that went wrong – we need to have a writing culture.
The most important thing about business writing is keeping it simple.
Live rants are only good as occasional motivation.
How Affirm Use a Prototyping Team to Ship So Fast
We have a prototyping team that is entrusted to ship non-beautiful/production quality features for customer feedback.
Once we get enough signal we pull it down & create a polished version.
Ideas alone are not enough – We need to create something that stands the test of time before our competitors do.
Why Letter Grades on Talent Is Just BS
People are coached & trained to be exceptional interviewees these days.
It is extremely hard to judge whether someone’s an A or B during hiring.
You can filter out C & D players; differentiation between A & B happens after you bring them in.
Friday’s episode with Brian Tolkin, Head of Product @ Opendoor:
Download the full transcript:
My 5 key takeaways:
Engineering, Product, Design - Which Becomes Less Important & Which Becomes More Important with AI
Engineering will become more important.
The top 5% of all skill sets will all become more valuable.
The median will become less valuable.
How AI Changes the Product Development Process
PMs, designers, and engineers will be able to iterate faster from the beginning.
They can create multiple prototypes & skip the documentation stages.
It will collapse the traditional, linear process.
How to Determine if Your Product Update is Sh*t or Users are Not Used to Change
You need to be more rigorous in how you think about your metrics.
If you think there could be a novelty effect in the beginning you should change your experiment.
We would look at data in week 5-8 instead of 1-4.
Why You Need to Hire True Product Teams
Not all PMs are created the same.
Some have a designer background, some have a technical background…
You need to hire based on what your product team needs.
Why You Shouldn't Job Hop
The longer you stay, the deeper your relationships and context within the company will be.
If you are job hopping every 18 months you need 6 months to ramp & 6 more for interviews.
You just do not have that much time to be effective.
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:
Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO @ Snowflake
Fabien Pinckaers, Founder & CEO @ Odoo
Solly Solomou, Founder & CEO @ LADbible
Thank you for reading 20VC.
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