20VC Newsletter - Nov 5th, 2023
Welcome to the 20VC Newsletter!
Here are the transcripts and key takeaways from episodes released this last week!
Monday’s episode with Nick Tomaino, Founder and General Partner at 1confirmation:
Download the full transcript here:
Here are Harry’s top 6 lessons from this Nick Tomaino episode👇
1/6 - Large Crypto Funds Should Give Money Back to LPs
Way too much money was raised. People raised $BN Funds and w/ no unique insights.
LPs had FOMO & wanted to deploy.
Are they going to give money back or just milk fees & deliver poor returns to LPs?
It'll play out over time.
2/6 - Why Crypto Twitter Hates Crypto VCs:
Big part of crypto VC game:
Doing private token deals.
Then build some prestige, media narrative, hype.
Then sell the token to retail.
Retail gets sucked in & VCs dump tokens on retail.
That's a big game being played within CryptoVC.
3/6 - What is the Future for Opensea:
The thesis is simple.
If NFTs become a massive asset class, Opensea will be the onramp into NFTs.
That is a massive business and the thesis has not changed.
4/6 - What is Opensea Worth Today and Did Nick Sell:
We did not sell on the way up but we did sell at the latest $13BN round.
Today, Opensea would be in the $1BN-$5BN valuation range.
5/6 - Solana: Tourist or Purist:
In crypto there are purists & tourists. The best projects are both. I historically viewed Solana as a tourist thing.
Maybe I'm wrong?
I'm open to it. I still haven't seen anything from Solana that's pushing the space forward.
But maybe I missed.
6/6 - How SBF Bought the World:
Every investor says, “Sam is so good at execution, he's so good at getting media attention & working w/ regulators & politicians.”
Why was that the case?
Because he was buying off politicians & regulators and media
It was a fraud of perception.
Wednesday’s episode was a 20Product!
David Meyer, SVP of Product Management at Databricks:
Download the full transcript here:
Harry’s top 7 lessons from the David Meyers episode: 👇
1/7 - The importance of reality distortion in startups: Every great leader is bending reality, creating things that seem impossible, and enrolling people in that vision.
2/7 - Great leaders show empathy and see the best in their team: Everyone is doing the best they can given their circumstances. As a leader, you should look for the genius in every team member.
3/7 - On being a product manager: The job is not as glamorous as many think. It involves finding compromises and making baby steps towards the vision while keeping the company alive.
4/7 - Balancing optimism in product development: Optimistic visions can sometimes fall apart if people aren't enrolled in them. It's crucial to balance this optimism with an understanding of what's realistically possible.
5/7 - On hiring for product teams: When hiring product managers, it's important to seek individuals who are already displaying product management skills in their current roles, rather than those who want the title.
6/7 - The CEO is the CPO: In many successful startups, the CEO holds the vision for the product and determines the right path. Other team members need to help execute this vision.
7/7 - Acceleration in growing companies: It's possible for companies to accelerate as they grow larger. With thousands of engineers and product people at his company, David Meyer sees continuous innovation despite the company's size.
P.S. These were not my favourite takeaways, these were created by Descript new AI feature, thanks to Andrew Mason!
That’s it for this week’s 20VC Newsletter - Don’t miss Joey Zwillinger, Co-Founder & CEO of Allbirds out tomorrow Monday, Nov 6th!