The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
00:44:42 · Harry Stebbings, Mike Cannon-Brookes
[00:44:42] S1: Do you just think you're built differently, Mike? Honestly, my biggest problem right now, and the show is successful because I'm very candid, I'm I'm worried. I'm seeing a load of 20 year old founders tap the bid. I don't wanna do this. I'm selling fast. I'm twelve years in. I've got more energy than ever. You're a little bit longer [00:44:59] S0: in the [00:44:59] S1: future than me. [00:45:00] S0: 24. [00:45:01] S1: You just love the the journey? [00:45:03] S0: Yes. I I think you have to enjoy what you do. I think it's uncommon everybody to manage their own energy supply. [00:45:09] S1: Do get do you get lonely? [00:45:11] S0: Do I get lonely? No. [00:45:13] S1: No. But, like, without Scott, I have a cofounder, Kieran. He's not technically, but he kind of is. Do you miss it?
00:45:19 · Mike Cannon-Brookes
[00:45:19] S0: No. Yes. A bit of both. So, I mean, if you mean am I lonely in terms of, man, I have an awesome executive team and I work with 10,000 of the smartest people. No. I always say that I get to work with an incredible number of very smart people on a daily basis solving hard problems. And if you designed a job for me, I'd be like, that is what I wanna do for the rest of my life. If you mean in terms of Scott, just... I see him pretty frequently. It's not like he doesn't live like, I'm in Amsterdam at the moment, and he travels a bit as well. But like, I don't know. We hang out at least monthly, and we drink wine or beer and talk about Atlassian and software and AI within the first three minutes of of what's going on. So it's not like he is uninterested in what we're doing. It's not like I don't get near daily text messages. Aren't we doing this? So he's he's very active for a retired person, which is great. You got years of experience, but everyone has their own journey to run. Right? And I think that's okay. I think what I was trying to say beforehand is you have to understand where your energy comes from. I think it's one of the things that I wanna make sure I get across to my kids is figure out what it is that gives you energy and try to do more of that thing, and you'll be okay in life just in a generalized world. Right? I think a lot of those people you talked about... And I get it in the AI era, man, the the mental health challenges of being a founder have long been written about and have never been written about enough, I think, because it's a very stressful job to feel like you have other people's livelihood and and less so at at sort of my, you know, time. But if you're at that early, I've raised money. I gotta get to the next raising. I gotta build this business. I've gotta get to profits and revenue and customers, and your reputation and name is wrapped up. And then I I see why this... It's incredibly taxing. I think we should start by saying all founders are amazing people, that they've taken on some insane challenge. They win. They lose. They fail. They succeed. They're still taking on that same challenge. I think the people that you're talking about, they get into it for the wrong reasons. It's very hard to sustain the energy.
00:47:17 · Mike Cannon-Brookes, Harry Stebbings
If you don't enjoy creating products or services in whichever industry you're choosing, don't think you're gonna be able to do it for very long. I think there are very few people that are purely motivated by money or being in the right circles that that's gonna sustain you for a five, ten year period. Right? I think you're probably doing this because you really enjoy it. Give me a microphone and a smart person to talk to you. You're like, ah, this is great. [00:47:40] S1: Dude, I get to interview, like, people like you every day, and it's the most incredible learning thing. Right. Don't care that I get paid. [00:47:48] S0: And that's awesome. So you figured out what your source of energy is, and it's one of the things. It doesn't have to be the only thing, but it's one of the things that give you that source of energy. I think when you... I I saw you you were ranting about this on another one of these walks down the street the other day, and I think it's totally true. But I've been here long enough. It sounds like I'm very wise old man kind of scary. You see this with each of these sort of iterations of the technology industry. There is a latest thing that attracts a lot of capital, that attracts a lot of people. And when that latest thing turned out to be like yesterday's thing, and it still can be incredibly meaningful. Right? We saw this when mobile took off. There was all these people that arrived to build mobile apps and mobile companies. They didn't sustain. The ones that won and sustained are often directed in the same same area. So
00:47:48 · Mike Cannon-Brookes, Harry Stebbings
[00:47:48] S0: And that's awesome. So you figured out what your source of energy is, and it's one of the things. It doesn't have to be the only thing, but it's one of the things that give you that source of energy. I think when you... I I saw you you were ranting about this on another one of these walks down the street the other day, and I think it's totally true. But I've been here long enough. It sounds like I'm very wise old man kind of scary. You see this with each of these sort of iterations of the technology industry. There is a latest thing that attracts a lot of capital, that attracts a lot of people. And when that latest thing turned out to be like yesterday's thing, and it still can be incredibly meaningful. Right? We saw this when mobile took off. There was all these people that arrived to build mobile apps and mobile companies. They didn't sustain. The ones that won and sustained are often directed in the same same area. So [00:48:32] S1: Now my worry is more that it should be hard, and I completely agree with you on the challenges of founders. But we've made it so normal now for someone to come out, raise $15,000,000 as a pre seed. It ain't that fucking hard to raise $15,000,000 now, hire some people, and then, honestly, to play the founder game and then tap out the minute you can. I think we've made it too easy in some respects, and that's venture capitalist fault.
00:48:32 · Harry Stebbings, Mike Cannon-Brookes
[00:48:32] S1: Now my worry is more that it should be hard, and I completely agree with you on the challenges of founders. But we've made it so normal now for someone to come out, raise $15,000,000 as a pre seed. It ain't that fucking hard to raise $15,000,000 now, hire some people, and then, honestly, to play the founder game and then tap out the minute you can. I think we've made it too easy in some respects, and that's venture capitalist fault. [00:48:57] S0: It's a capital society. Right? So we can't... There's... Like, that's the the market price for those types of things. I hope that people at some point realize working with smart people on difficult problems for long periods of time, the people I work with are a large part of the reason that I'm still doing this. Right? The people that we get to create with is the source of energy. And I think that's... Doesn't sound like it's in those people's, you know, DNA to do that, and that's that's gonna be hard to sustain. [00:49:29] S1: Mike, we're gonna do a quick fire because I could talk to you all day. Sure. So what have you changed your mind on in the last twelve months most? [00:49:35] S0: The likely future price of inference. [00:49:39] S1: It goes way down. [00:49:40] S0: I think so. Further than I thought. [00:49:41] S1: What does no one say about having money that you think should be said? [00:49:46] S0: That it is a wonderful thing and a big burden at the same time. [00:49:50] S1: Why is it a big burden, honestly?
00:49:50 · Harry Stebbings, Mike Cannon-Brookes
[00:49:50] S1: Why is it a big burden, honestly? [00:49:53] S0: I think it's a huge responsibility. I think it's just something that's temporarily held as a legacy, and you have a responsibility to do, I think, societally profitable things with it. Societally profitable, not personally profitable. And I think you feel that that that burden. It's lots of interesting things come with that. [00:50:11] S1: How do I bring my kids up to not be assholes if they're brought up rich? [00:50:15] S0: Man, ask me in 20 time. I hope I get that right. I I think probably try to be yourself. I read a quote from I think it was a Goldman's old Goldman Sachs CEO says you can tell a lot about people when they get promoted as to whether they grow into the job or swell into it. And I feel like man, I've been desperately growing every year I've been in this job. And I definitively do not feel like I deserve this job. And I have to work crazy hard to deserve it next year or to grow into it or whatever term. I think it's the same, probably some similar version of this with with your kids. If you are curious, if you are humble, if you have gratitude, if you display all those properties, you probably give them the best chance to understand where it is that that that comes from. But I'm sure it's a huge challenge. Tell me if you figure it out.