The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
00:46:18 · Harry Stebbings, Sameer Dholakia
[00:46:18] S1: No. I totally get that. I completely agree with that headline. I think I'm very trained and strongly believed in the values being differentiated and arguable. So, like, we believe that hard work, but hardest of work leads to better results. I don't buy the rest days. I don't buy rest days in the gym. You train a different body part. You do cardio, not weights. Phelps won because he did... No. But a lot of people don't agree with that. I'm chastised for it in Europe. I'm the spawn of Satan. So... But... Personally, we should... Like, seriously, dude. Like, I... It's not popular. Like, I will get booed on stage by labor conferences. [00:46:55] S0: No kidding. Well, listen. I'll tell you this, man. I couldn't agree with you more. I think, you know, I'm the son of two immigrants. Work ethic is everything. That hungry h. Like, my line was always, I wanna work with people who are gonna run through effing walls to be successful, who will not relent. Like, we like, we quote the Eminem song, like, success is my only mother effing option. Failure is not. Like, that is... I want people like that. [00:47:20] S1: Number number two for us, feelings are expensive in investment committees. Samir, if me and you are in an investment committee, I wanna say you're an idiot for thinking that we should pay that price for x company. And why is that? I don't wanna have to tread around it. Like, Samir, thank you for bringing this. I appreciate the time you spent with the entrepreneur, but I think we should consider... I'm sorry. We're both big enough.
00:47:20 · Harry Stebbings, Sameer Dholakia
[00:47:20] S1: Number number two for us, feelings are expensive in investment committees. Samir, if me and you are in an investment committee, I wanna say you're an idiot for thinking that we should pay that price for x company. And why is that? I don't wanna have to tread around it. Like, Samir, thank you for bringing this. I appreciate the time you spent with the entrepreneur, but I think we should consider... I'm sorry. We're both big enough. [00:47:40] S0: So... Yeah. Sure. I mean, you know... And again, that... So that... Like, that can be great for your team and culture and people that are gonna opt into that are gonna be awesome together, and they're gonna appreciate the directness. I would say, you know, the intellectual honesty in the IC is actually what matters most. [00:47:56] S1: But then my point is actually it's great that you can debate because I'm not right. It's just our way. But what I don't understand is the values like Zoom, which is like, I think happiness. Right? No no one's advocating for unhappiness.
00:47:56 · Harry Stebbings, Sameer Dholakia
[00:47:56] S1: But then my point is actually it's great that you can debate because I'm not right. It's just our way. But what I don't understand is the values like Zoom, which is like, I think happiness. Right? No no one's advocating for unhappiness. [00:48:10] S0: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. I I hear that. I hear that. And by the way, I'll just say on the happiness one, by the way, at at at SendGrid, our happiness... I I did find at SendGrid, I had to write down what do we mean by each of these four h's. And the happy for me was, of course, we want employees to be happy, but that's not what I meant by the... Like, the happy h at SendGrid was I want people who are gonna see the world and our business as half full. The glass is half full, not half empty. And there are just people who are gonna be negative, man, who are gonna be who are gonna be like, you know, Eeyore and Winnie the Pooh or just gonna be downers. I'm like, no, man. I I want people who are optimists, who are fired up to go tackle problems, and that's what I meant by happy, not like I'm, you know, joyful. That's great too. I hope you're joyful, but I want you to be a positively disposed person who when things go go bad or are hard, you're not gonna go negative and bring the team down with you.
00:48:10 · Sameer Dholakia, Harry Stebbings
[00:48:10] S0: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. I I hear that. I hear that. And by the way, I'll just say on the happiness one, by the way, at at at SendGrid, our happiness... I I did find at SendGrid, I had to write down what do we mean by each of these four h's. And the happy for me was, of course, we want employees to be happy, but that's not what I meant by the... Like, the happy h at SendGrid was I want people who are gonna see the world and our business as half full. The glass is half full, not half empty. And there are just people who are gonna be negative, man, who are gonna be who are gonna be like, you know, Eeyore and Winnie the Pooh or just gonna be downers. I'm like, no, man. I I want people who are optimists, who are fired up to go tackle problems, and that's what I meant by happy, not like I'm, you know, joyful. That's great too. I hope you're joyful, but I want you to be a positively disposed person who when things go go bad or are hard, you're not gonna go negative and bring the team down with you. [00:49:00] S1: If we go back to Venture, we're seeing some of the most incredible value accumulation from these businesses. We've mentioned Ligure. We've mentioned Fireworks. I think you're in Fowl as well. How do you think about when's the right time to sell? And with IPOs being continuously pushed, maybe as many more stripes. How do you think about liquidity events?
00:49:00 · Harry Stebbings, Sameer Dholakia
[00:49:00] S1: If we go back to Venture, we're seeing some of the most incredible value accumulation from these businesses. We've mentioned Ligure. We've mentioned Fireworks. I think you're in Fowl as well. How do you think about when's the right time to sell? And with IPOs being continuously pushed, maybe as many more stripes. How do you think about liquidity events? [00:49:24] S0: Yeah. And I'll look. I joke about being new to the business 4.5 into venture, but but I do know that DPI matters. I'm not that new. I know that liquidity matters. DPI matters. Our LPs are not in the business of handing us the money for perpetuity, so we gotta get it back to them in multiples. And and I get that. Right now, I think because we're still so early in this AI wave, it's not a it's not a principal concern, but I would say because I think these businesses are gonna keep compounding and keep compounding at scale. But I do think that we should look for opportunities just practically, just being prudent, risk aware business people. You should take some chips off the table along the journey to make sure that you're getting some DPI and and and locking in gains for for your LPs and your funds. You should. [00:50:09] S1: Do you find that you're a... This is a backhanded compliment. Do you find that you're able to, given the brand of Basima? It's often a a very premium brand in around.
00:50:09 · Harry Stebbings, Sameer Dholakia
[00:50:09] S1: Do you find that you're a... This is a backhanded compliment. Do you find that you're able to, given the brand of Basima? It's often a a very premium brand in around. [00:50:18] S0: Yeah. No. I I appreciate that, and I do think we have a great a great brand. I think that when you're... When we're looking for a little bit of liquidity to take some chips off the table and bring DPI back, it tends to be at very late stages of the journey, and and most people see it for what it is, which is, yeah, they've got an enormous position here. They're gonna make lots and lots of money, and the whole thing is gonna continue to compound. But to take a little bit off the table to get back to LPs, I just find people are more matter of fact about that now. And this is back to the whole professionalization of the asset class. What used to feel like a personal decision and, like, do you not believe in me anymore? Do you don't believe in my business anymore? People are... I I just think that at the scale of the businesses that we're building, the size of the checks that we are now writing at the valuations that we're writing them, I think people get it. CEOs are are very... I've been on the other side. Like, they're they're sophisticated business people. They understand. [00:51:12] S1: I totally agree with you there, and I think people oscillate too much on the... Oh, they'd be so upset if you told... I think founders are actually very rational and and smart about it.