The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
01:05:51 · Harry Stebbings, Carles Reina
[01:05:51] S1: When you look back at that 74 that you've done, Angel, what's your biggest lesson? [01:05:56] S0: So I do founders that are like very technical. And what I realized like is many of the technical founders over the years, like, they just realized that like they don't care about sales. So what I've ended up streaming over the past years a lot more is like, are they really good technical founders? And do they also care about sales? Because otherwise you end up stumbling into a wall where you tell them, the project is fantastic, don't get me wrong, but we need to start making some money. Right? And sometimes it's like, No, no, no, we don't want to make money. We only want to do research. We only want to build the best product and so on. And you're like, You're going to die as a company, right? It's so much more difficult to convince them that they also need to start thinking about commercialization of the product, that at some point you end up filtering them out. And I think one of the key areas, you need to actually test for appetite for sales at some point early on because there might not be a fit. But there's the flip side of all of this, which is if you look at OpenAI or Anthropic or Sakana AI, they raise money saying, We're gonna be doing pure research, right? Non profit. Exactly, exactly, right? So there is a flip side of it, but of course, when you look at Venture, which is like power law, at the same time, you need to be looking at a lot of different companies, then maybe research hap are outliers in many ways, right?
01:07:12 · Harry Stebbings, Carles Reina
[01:07:12] S1: Final one and then a quick fire. What do you want to do with Baba? Do you want this to be venture fund that's like a $500,000,000 fund in its own right? [01:07:20] S0: So far, like what I want to do is like, want to build a generational fund, something that like actually will I would leave us all ideally. Like smaller funds, like keep raising relatively often, but being there for founders, like I wanna be there for founders. Has to be the operator led fund that actually is there for them. It's like doing the right thing [01:07:38] S1: Can you what be there for founders, dude, if you've got 40 and you're a sales leader, honestly, and then you do another fund? [01:07:45] S0: I think it is possible. I think it's like a ruthless prioritization of your time and where you put the effort. I talk constantly to my founders on WhatsApp all the time. I will dedicate weekends, late nights, early mornings. [01:07:58] S1: Do have kids? [01:07:58] S0: No. That helps, [01:08:00] S1: for sure, right? Helps a lot. It helps a [01:08:02] S0: lot. Like I go [01:08:03] S1: Do want kids? [01:08:04] S0: I 100% want. But... And maybe at some point, you end up having to decide on which one you go further, right? Do take you one? Do you take the other one? And so on. [01:08:13] S1: Yeah. I wanna do a quick fire round. I've loved this. So what have you changed your mind on in the last twelve months? Like, specifically on investing, it's like you [01:08:21] S0: need to also be investing, like, in founders that actually care about, like, sales, not only the technical aspect of it.
01:08:21 · Carles Reina, Harry Stebbings
[01:08:21] S0: need to also be investing, like, in founders that actually care about, like, sales, not only the technical aspect of it. [01:08:28] S1: What's the single biggest mistake you see sales leaders make today? [01:08:32] S0: That they don't spend enough time talking to customers directly and signing contracts themselves. What's the [01:08:37] S1: biggest mistake CEOs make in how their relationship is with their sales leaders? [01:08:42] S0: That they would just force a number to their sales leaders and expect that they deliver without understanding what [01:08:48] S1: are the implications of all of it. What channel or method is like super outdated in sales? Often people say that like cold calling. What is outdated? [01:08:58] S0: Outdated, I think is like emails. Like sending an email, no one replies. There is so much like outbound that is like fundamentally AI generated, no one replies. Like the the conversion rate on emails these days has dropped to like like 0.00 something whatever. [01:09:14] S1: What's your biggest insecurity?
01:09:14 · Harry Stebbings, Carles Reina
[01:09:14] S1: What's your biggest insecurity? [01:09:16] S0: What's my big insecurity that like I might not be able to get to the end of the quarter for the number that I wanted. Has that ever happened? Yeah. A 100%. But like, you live with it, right? Like, we all make mistakes all the time and you live with it. But I think it's important because like as a sales leader, you always need to be worrying like, am I gonna get to the end of the quarter? Because it means that like, you are pushing really fucking hard. If you know that like you're gonna be get there, you're gonna get there, you're gonna relax. I don't want that.: [01:09:43] S1: Let's be honest. You don't need the money anymore. ElevenLabs Revolut as angels. It's not about the money. Are you a better sales leader because you're richer?: Yes. [01:09:53] S0: I don't get compensated on how much sales we make. It means that I'm fully independent because that is not like, I don't believe in that. I don't believe, like, if the company makes X amount of money, then it's fantastic. If they make Z fantastic, my goal is to make sure we make as much money as possible based on the plan that we've committed. And the plans are actually bananas, right? That we always like shoot for the stars. But my role is to make sure that I get compensated on equity side, not on how much money we make. I think it's wrong. If I
01:09:53 · Carles Reina, Harry Stebbings
[01:09:53] S0: I don't get compensated on how much sales we make. It means that I'm fully independent because that is not like, I don't believe in that. I don't believe, like, if the company makes X amount of money, then it's fantastic. If they make Z fantastic, my goal is to make sure we make as much money as possible based on the plan that we've committed. And the plans are actually bananas, right? That we always like shoot for the stars. But my role is to make sure that I get compensated on equity side, not on how much money we make. I think it's wrong. If I [01:10:24] S1: were to say the person is listening for the next sixty seconds, and this is all that they're going to take from our conversation and from all of your writing, from everything they've seen in the news about you, what would you most want that person to take from this and from everything in the next sixty seconds? [01:10:43] S0: Constantly up on people. I think it's important. But like like essentially spend time with the team, spend time with your customers, treat them as a community, not as a proper transactional sale. Be with them, be on the road all the time because if you're not, you're missing the reality of what your team, what your company is going through. And the only way to actually like be a better sales leader and the only way to actually get to your sales target is fundamentally like going through the pain yourself every single day. [01:11:14] S1: Dude, this has been such a joy. I've loved this. It also feels like I've known you for a long time. But thank you for being so brilliant.
01:11:14 · Harry Stebbings, Carles Reina
[01:11:14] S1: Dude, this has been such a joy. I've loved this. It also feels like I've known you for a long time. But thank you for being so brilliant. [01:11:22] S0: Thank you so much for inviting me. This was this was really, really good.