Latest Interviews
Showing 436–450 of 502 transcripts.
Clear all filtersIAC CEO Joey Levin: Why Value Investing is BS; The Most Insane Element of SPACs | 20VC #982
Joey Levin, CEO of IAC, critiques the SPAC mechanism as structurally flawed for established companies while arguing that current private valuations are artificially inflated compared to public markets. He advocates for a disciplined value investing strategy defined by capital deployment during downturns rather than rigid multiples, emphasizing organizational simplification and the rejection of "bailout mentality" in leadership. Levin further details a management philosophy rooted in hard work, long-term resilience, and the acceptance of difficult prioritization decisions to distinguish genuine opportunities from distractions.
Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger: The Founders of Instagram Reveal their New Project "Artifact" | E981
Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, Josh Kushner, Harry Stebbings
Instagram co-founders Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom have launched Artifact, a machine-learning-driven news platform designed to prioritize personalized content discovery over traditional social graph mechanics. After delaying their release for eighteen months to perfect the product, the duo assembled a lean team of seven focused on raw talent and rapid execution to navigate the complexities of algorithmic recommendation. Their strategy targets long-term user retention by framing AI as a tool to serve individual needs rather than maximize corporate engagement, aiming to reshape how society consumes information.
Zach Lawryk: The Ultimate Guide to Sales Engineering | E980
The evolving sales landscape necessitates a strategic pivot from controlling the process to buyer enablement, requiring Sales Engineers to act as technical experts who tie solutions to business value while Account Executives manage the final close. Organizations typically hire their first Sales Engineer when sales teams reach five to seven representatives or when deal complexity exceeds the sales rep's technical capacity, establishing a 5:1 ratio with a 70/30 compensation split to align incentives. Success in this model depends on hiring candidates who blend technical depth with sales empathy and adopting short-form, multi-channel content strategies to capture attention in a saturated digital environment.
Aloe Blacc: The Secret to Songwriting & Storytelling; Working w/ Avicii on “Wake Me Up” | 20VC #979
Aloe Blacc, Avicii, Harry Stebbings
Aloe Black transitioned from a health sector consulting layoff to a full-time music career that prioritizes parental presence and creative autonomy through rapid songwriting sessions and a refusal of traditional industry infrastructure. Beyond his musical achievements, including the hit "Wake Me Up" with Avicii, Black founded a biotech firm to develop SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics by framing philanthropy as enterprise to secure venture capital. Looking ahead to 2028, he plans to advance his biotech venture into Phase 3 trials while launching a television series to demystify his creative process, all while maintaining a strict travel limit to preserve his marriage and family life.
Mike Duboe: Top 5 Lessons Scaling Stitch Fix to IPO; Why CAC/LTV is a BS Metric | 20VC #978
This comprehensive framework defines growth engineering as a systematic discipline that prioritizes down-funnel optimization, holdout testing, and loop-based compounding over traditional funnel or attribution models. It outlines a strategic organizational structure where growth leads often report directly to the CEO to maintain autonomy, supported by cross-functional pods and rigorous hiring protocols focused on analytics foundations and experimentation roadmaps. Finally, the guide establishes data-driven operational standards for paid marketing, emphasizing payback period thresholds, creative volume testing, and the elimination of LTV:CAC reliance in favor of precise incremental lift metrics to ensure sustainable scaling.
Tom Loverro: The Ultimate Startup Survival Guide for 2023 | 20VC #977
Amid a market correction aligning private valuations with 2016–2018 public multiples, the session outlines strategies for founders to navigate impending down rounds and extend runway by initiating fundraising with six to seven months of capital remaining. Industry veteran Tom emphasizes operational discipline, such as maintaining core R&D while cutting costs and hiring experienced executives, to survive a downturn predicted to be more severe than the Great Financial Crisis. The discussion further addresses shifting investor dynamics, including the return of multi-year deployment cycles and the critical importance of governance as capital becomes more selective and concentrated on fundamentals-driven diligence.
Tips for Hiring Salespeople
The event outlines a strategic framework for building early sales teams, emphasizing that first hires must be intimately coupled with founders through direct observation to internalize the company narrative rather than relying on documentation. It prioritizes hiring candidates with proven ACV deal experience and a "hunter" mindset capable of navigating complex market dynamics over those with mere domain expertise. Additionally, the discussion details specific assessment techniques for identifying "grit" by evaluating a candidate's history of enduring long-term adversity and making significant sacrifices to achieve difficult goals.
How to Structure Sales Comp
The session outlines critical strategies for structuring early-stage sales compensation by prioritizing risk-tolerant hires and aligning incentives through collaborative, iterative plan development. It further details methods for maintaining team morale during market downturns via strategic transparency and the tactical use of gamified "small wins" to sustain momentum. Finally, the discussion defines effective Sales Performance Incentive Funds, illustrating their application through activity-based goals and monetary multipliers like Twilio's "Pipe Pipe Week" to drive non-routine business objectives.
Orlando Bravo: Raising Kids as a Billionaire; VC vs PE; Is Warren Buffet Wrong? | 20VC #974
Orlando Bravo, Warren Buffet, Harry Stebbings
Toma Bravo, a software-focused private equity firm founded in 2008, generates alpha by acquiring profitable B2B market leaders and systematically improving cash flow margins through rigorous operational discipline and consensus-driven decision-making. Under the leadership of founder Orlando Bravo, the firm rejects speculative venture valuations in favor of a "value plus growth" model that prioritizes future yield, recently navigating a challenging interest rate environment by targeting high-quality assets trading at reasonable multiples. Looking ahead, the firm plans to scale its mission impact by 2028 while expanding its foundation's support for emerging entrepreneurs, maintaining a focused portfolio strategy that avoids the operational pitfalls of excessive diversification.
Alex Bouaziz: How We Became a $12B HR Company with 2,000 Remote Employees | 20VC #973
Founded in 2019 by Alex Bouaziz and Shuo Yang, Deel has scaled to 2,000 employees across 100 countries by pivoting from freelancer trust tools to a comprehensive global compliance and payroll platform. The organization leverages a fully distributed model and aggressive acquisitions to deliver rapid "Deel Speed" in execution while maintaining deep infrastructure for legal and payroll services. With a vision to help hundreds of millions of people work globally, the company combines its cross-cultural founding team with the operational discipline of its CFO to navigate complex international labor markets.
Ultimate Guide to Interviewing a Growth Candidate
Founders are guided to define specific growth models and North Star metrics before drafting job descriptions to attract expertise in either channel amplification or full-funnel optimization. Candidates undergo a rigorous evaluation process involving take-home assignments that assess their ability to audit user journeys, propose experiments, and analyze real data, while interviewers specifically screen for ego and reliance on outdated playbooks. The final hiring decision is made by a cross-functional panel comprising leadership, technical teams, and functional partners to ensure strategic alignment before extending an offer.
Homebrew’s Hunter Walk & Satya Patel: Why $100M is Not Enough to Execute a Seed Strategy | 20VC #972
Hunter Walk, Satya Patel, Harry Stebbings, Robbie, Sacha, Kieran, Eric, Jason Lampkin, Larry
Founded in 2012, Homebrew operates as a two-partner investment firm that transitioned to a self-capitalized model in late 2022 to maintain total decision-making autonomy and strict consensus governance. By funding their own operations through recycled carry rather than external limited partners, co-founders Satya Nadella and Hunter walked away from fixed fund sizes to pursue price-agnostic, long-term portfolio building focused on founder alignment over rapid exits. This strategy allows the partners to prioritize deep operational support and early secondary liquidity for founders while navigating a market correction that favors companies with genuine product-market fit over those reliant on inflated valuations.
Canva's Cliff Obrecht: How We Turned Our Yearbook Company to $40B Business | 20VC #971
Cliff Obrecht, Mel, Keith, Harry Stebbings
Canva co-founders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrien describe their journey from rejecting over 100 venture capital offers to building a global design platform by prioritizing user delight, rigorous technical restructuring, and a unique hiring philosophy that values "distance traveled" over pedigree. The leadership team outlines their strategic shift toward AI-driven co-pilots, their commitment to bundling interoperable creative tools, and their decision to donate 99% of their equity to the Canva Foundation to address global poverty. Looking ahead to 2027, the founders aim to unify fragmented visual workflows while actively challenging the startup ecosystem's geographic biases and promoting sustainable, transparent leadership practices.
Stevie Case: World's First Female Pro Gamer; Hiring Tips for Sales; PLG vs Enterprise | 20VC #970
Former gamer turned CEO Ciara Vanta leverages her unique background in game design and federal litigation to advocate for a sales model grounded in vulnerability, mathematical rigor, and human connection rather than traditional aggression. She advises enterprise leaders to avoid simultaneous PLG and enterprise motions, recommending instead a staggered expansion strategy that incorporates early multi-threading with finance and security stakeholders to navigate capital constraints. Vanta further emphasizes hiring for grit and curiosity while restructuring compensation to gamify pipeline activities, ultimately urging the industry to pivot toward higher empathy and authentic engagement.
Liquid Death'a Origin Story | Co-Founder & CEO Mike Cessario
Mike Cessario, Harry Stebbings
Founder Mike Dryer launched Liquid Death after observing that health-conscious subcultures were underserved by brands lacking the irreverent marketing of junk food giants, a concept initially rejected by traditional venture capitalists. The company validated its viability before launch by securing more social media followers than Aquafina in four months, a metric that attracted tech and science-focused investors who understood digital traction despite skepticism from conventional CPG backers. Dryer now advocates for founders to rely on empirical data rather than the "nobody gets it" narrative, noting that most startup ideas fail regardless of their strategic intent.