The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
00:32:54 · Scott Wilson, Harry Stebbings
[00:32:54] S0: I mean, it was controversial enough that we discussed it with the board. I mean, they're great investors. They're great people, And they've obviously made LPs a ton of, money over long periods of time. Like, didn't fit super well into our kind of co investment model. So they weren't great partners for us at that point in time. And, you know, it was probably detrimental to some LPs when they switched that structure. And we really haven't followed the firm as closely since then, but, hey, those guys will degrade over long periods of time. [00:33:21] S1: Scott, I'm so sorry to be so blunt. You don't freaking turn down Sequoia. Like, you just you just don't do it. I really like you because you're blunt. You're honest. You're just a good dude. But, like, what are you doing? Even even if they one x, the point is you're you're close to the green leaf, and goodness comes from being close. It's like the genie in the lantern, you know, in the cartoons. Maybe don't rub it. [00:33:47] S0: Yeah. No. I'm sure it was a mistake if you look at the returns that they've generated, but we've done just fine. [00:33:53] S1: Did every LP just come to you and be like, wow. That was so bold. [00:33:58] S0: You know, it was funny. I... There was a bunch of LPs that called, and we expressed, you know, our view. And, I think everybody complained about it, but everybody did it at the end of the day.
00:33:58 · Scott Wilson, Harry Stebbings
[00:33:58] S0: You know, it was funny. I... There was a bunch of LPs that called, and we expressed, you know, our view. And, I think everybody complained about it, but everybody did it at the end of the day. [00:34:08] S1: It is... I I have so many LPs that cool us up because we have a lot of data on the managers that we interview. And they will say, I can't believe it, and they name a big mega platform. They make me do the India fund, the China fund, the bio fund, the crypto fund, the games fund. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. And I say, so did you do them? And they go, oh, yeah. Of course, we did it. Oh, yeah. [00:34:29] S0: Yeah. And we just wanna do that. We'll just... We'll find some other place to put capital. [00:34:33] S1: Is it a big decision for you to churn? Like, do you agree with the three fund policy for fund commitments, which is traditional in venture, being LPs will commit to three to give managers enough time and room to prove themselves or not?
00:34:33 · Harry Stebbings, Scott Wilson
[00:34:33] S1: Is it a big decision for you to churn? Like, do you agree with the three fund policy for fund commitments, which is traditional in venture, being LPs will commit to three to give managers enough time and room to prove themselves or not? [00:34:46] S0: Yeah. I mean, like, we don't have a hard commitment. Like, probably, we're committing to more than three funds, but we will... As soon as, like, there's something for us to go and underwrite, you know, and we're fortunate that we don't have that many partners. So we typically know their portfolio companies relatively well, and we'll start making our own judgment calls on what we think the quality of the underlying portfolio is early on. And if we if we think there's a big disconnect on... You know, between our view of the portfolio and the partner's view of the portfolio, then, you know, we won't stick around. But that... That's super rare. I mean, typically, we have some view before we invest. [00:35:20] S1: When you review those decisions to not do a fund, what is the dominant reason? What's the number one most frequent reason why you will churn? Discipline around valuation. Wow. That's bold. But it's bold because you don't know with the greatest of respects. And so the best companies often look expensive at the time, but very cheap in hindsight. And so for you to take a snapshot decision and say that company is overpriced is bold close to it being done.
00:35:20 · Harry Stebbings, Scott Wilson
[00:35:20] S1: When you review those decisions to not do a fund, what is the dominant reason? What's the number one most frequent reason why you will churn? Discipline around valuation. Wow. That's bold. But it's bold because you don't know with the greatest of respects. And so the best companies often look expensive at the time, but very cheap in hindsight. And so for you to take a snapshot decision and say that company is overpriced is bold close to it being done. [00:35:49] S0: Yeah. I mean, it's typically... It's not just one example. Like, we we had one partner that I... I'm not sure he found a 100 times revenue deal that he was willing to turn down. Like, it just didn't exist. And, for something to trade at a 100 times revenue, it has to be, you know, an exciting company. I get that. But for us, like that's not what we want our capital to be used for. We want discipline around valuation, you know, and you mentioned LeafX L, like, you know, I think he's super pragmatic. He'll obviously, you know, pay up, and he's participated in some of these great companies that are huge winners. But he's also very pragmatic about, you know, when things get too frothy stepping away.
00:35:49 · Scott Wilson, Harry Stebbings
[00:35:49] S0: Yeah. I mean, it's typically... It's not just one example. Like, we we had one partner that I... I'm not sure he found a 100 times revenue deal that he was willing to turn down. Like, it just didn't exist. And, for something to trade at a 100 times revenue, it has to be, you know, an exciting company. I get that. But for us, like that's not what we want our capital to be used for. We want discipline around valuation, you know, and you mentioned LeafX L, like, you know, I think he's super pragmatic. He'll obviously, you know, pay up, and he's participated in some of these great companies that are huge winners. But he's also very pragmatic about, you know, when things get too frothy stepping away. [00:36:26] S1: Do you think we should give managers forgiveness patience for deploying funds much faster than they said they would? Scott, me and you are both old enough to know that every manager says three years, and every manager right now is coming back twelve to eighteen months later saying, Scott, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, but investing. It's the best time ever. New intelligence intelligence. Should we give them forgiveness?
00:36:26 · Harry Stebbings, Scott Wilson
[00:36:26] S1: Do you think we should give managers forgiveness patience for deploying funds much faster than they said they would? Scott, me and you are both old enough to know that every manager says three years, and every manager right now is coming back twelve to eighteen months later saying, Scott, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, but investing. It's the best time ever. New intelligence intelligence. Should we give them forgiveness? [00:36:48] S0: You know, if we think that they're deploying capital at really high returns, like, we have no problem with really fast deployment. And if we think if they're deploying capital at poor returns or poor expected value, then we don't care how fast it's deployed is what I would say. We have a bias for smaller funds. Like we'd much rather have someone who raises, you know, a billion dollar fund when they could raise 4,000,000,000 and, and comes back every eighteen months than, than someone who raises 10,000,000,000 and comes back every three years. We, we just think like the ability to write like a small check-in a venture portfolio and have that be a super meaningful outcome for the whole portfolio, you know, a fund returner is is much easier in a billion dollar or less fund than it is in a $10,000,000,000 fund.