The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
00:23:42 · Alan Chang, Harry Stebbings
[00:23:42] S0: China. Why is that? Just look at the energy price. If you look at the... What the Brits and Europeans pay in terms of, you know, cost per kilowatt hour, it's roughly 25 to $30 cents. In The US, it's 10 to $15 cents. In China, it's $8 cents. If you look at energy per capita, US hasn't grown in the last twenty five years. It's been flat, and China has gone up by seven times. And if you look at the build out in China, right, they have truly vertically integrated energy companies run by the state, from generation to the grid and distribution. And, you know, whilst, you know, in the West, like, there are people debating, oh, is renewables better? Is, you know, oil and gas better? You know, then there's like... It's it's becoming, like, a very political thing. In China, they build everything. In China, they deploy more solar than the all Western economies combined. In China, they deployed more gas, more coal, more grid. They've laid more cables of grid than all Western economies combined. So they're just building everything. Like, clearly, they understand the importance of energy costs, and they're just building everything. I think that's a, yeah, model economy we we should we should we should follow for energy policy. [00:24:46] S2: Do you stand by the belief that, yeah, we're all in the same WhatsApp groups and they say... And everyone says, ah, but the level of talent coming out of Imperial and Cambridge and Oxford, absolutely, we can parallel The US. Do you stand by that on talent levels in The UK?
00:24:46 · Harry Stebbings, Alan Chang
[00:24:46] S2: Do you stand by the belief that, yeah, we're all in the same WhatsApp groups and they say... And everyone says, ah, but the level of talent coming out of Imperial and Cambridge and Oxford, absolutely, we can parallel The US. Do you stand by that on talent levels in The UK? [00:25:01] S0: I think talent levels in The UK is good. Like, ultimately, education. Like, I I personally receive higher education in The UK. I think it's world class, and ultimately, this is the key ingredient to to build, you know, anything successful. Although I'm short term, I'm bearish on The UK, but long term, I'm I'm bullish. [00:25:17] S2: What makes you bearish right now in The UK? [00:25:20] S0: Current government's heading in the wrong direction. We need deep d eregulation so it's easier to build. And there's a lot of talk about growth, but it's just talk and no action. [00:25:30] S2: Respectfully, don't know how you can be bearish in the short term and bullish in the long term. Like, when you look at the kind of cyclical structural decline that we're heading into, that is multi decade, actually, and it's very difficult to reverse out of. So with respect, I don't know how you can be long term bullish, but short term bearish. [00:25:46] S0: I think a lot of people with common sense are realizing we're in a bad situation. What makes me optimistic is because when I speak to people, there is some common sense. Hopefully, those people with common sense will elect a a more sensible government in the future that will do the right thing.
00:25:46 · Alan Chang, Harry Stebbings
[00:25:46] S0: I think a lot of people with common sense are realizing we're in a bad situation. What makes me optimistic is because when I speak to people, there is some common sense. Hopefully, those people with common sense will elect a a more sensible government in the future that will do the right thing. [00:26:02] S2: With respect, do you think that's actually a fair assessment, though? I mean, right now, it looks like Nigel Farage and reform will be that government. And, actually, when you look at populace and and The UK populace, transparently, it's it's not the intellectual Matt Clifford that is the average person on the street. [00:26:17] S0: I think what's key is the next government... Because ultimately, I think deregulation is you just need a will, like a very, very strong will to do it. As long as the following government's gonna attract a top team around them and being advised the right regulations to look at and and to delete or reform, I think we could do it. [00:26:39] S2: Do you feel you have a political party home today? I feel kind of politically lost, if I'm honest, which is like I used to be a a kind of conservative. Now I don't feel any particular allegiance to the conservatives on the committee, to be honest, but I don't feel particularly strong belief in Nigel Farage and reform. I I think labor's terrible, but I don't feel like I have a political home like I used to.
00:26:39 · Harry Stebbings, Alan Chang
[00:26:39] S2: Do you feel you have a political party home today? I feel kind of politically lost, if I'm honest, which is like I used to be a a kind of conservative. Now I don't feel any particular allegiance to the conservatives on the committee, to be honest, but I don't feel particularly strong belief in Nigel Farage and reform. I I think labor's terrible, but I don't feel like I have a political home like I used to. [00:27:00] S0: I wanna make sure there are people who have... Who are competent to lead the country. Right? I wanna make sure the most competent individuals are leading the countries regardless of party. [00:27:09] S2: Who would you most like to see? [00:27:10] S0: Macclifford is a pretty good choice. I'm probably in the same camp as you for now. [00:27:15] S2: We said about talent in The UK. One thing that's always very hard with talent is detecting it. And part of that is the interview process. And you helped me, again, you know, hire my chief of staff even. When you look at green flags in interview processes that excite you, what are some of the best signals that one can give in an interview process? [00:27:34] S0: Basically, when I when I explain to the candidate, you know, about what we're trying to build at Fuze, ambitions, how we wanna be a number one energy company in the world, the hard work that requires to build it, like, I usually see is, like, the body language, right, as well as the facial expression. Like, are they leaning in or they're leaning out? And you wanna be hiring people who are leaning in.
00:27:34 · Alan Chang, Harry Stebbings
[00:27:34] S0: Basically, when I when I explain to the candidate, you know, about what we're trying to build at Fuze, ambitions, how we wanna be a number one energy company in the world, the hard work that requires to build it, like, I usually see is, like, the body language, right, as well as the facial expression. Like, are they leaning in or they're leaning out? And you wanna be hiring people who are leaning in. [00:27:52] S2: I don't like bounces either. You know when you look at someone's CV and it's like one year, one year, [00:27:56] S0: one year, one year. That's also not great. [00:27:58] S2: Anything else where you're like, not great? Fluffy CVs for me. Like, okay, you hire a marketing manager. I wanna see I increased MQLs by 38%. I did that through these three core channels. I learned this about Facebook advertising, but then it saturated when we hit expand. I'm like, oh, very detailed, like clear attribution led data. [00:28:16] S0: I'll say very long CVs is bad. Yeah. I think it should be maximum page. Like, if Elon Musk can fill... Put a CV in one page, so could you. Yeah. It reminds me of, like, you know, like your first ever CV. Right? And you're trying to fill the page, and you couldn't think of anything to put. And you're, like, putting in the, like, special skills like Microsoft Word. It's got that type of vibe.
00:28:16 · Alan Chang, Harry Stebbings
[00:28:16] S0: I'll say very long CVs is bad. Yeah. I think it should be maximum page. Like, if Elon Musk can fill... Put a CV in one page, so could you. Yeah. It reminds me of, like, you know, like your first ever CV. Right? And you're trying to fill the page, and you couldn't think of anything to put. And you're, like, putting in the, like, special skills like Microsoft Word. It's got that type of vibe. [00:28:37] S2: Right? Professional Tiddlywings player. Other hobbies, skiing, Art. I fucking hate art. Yeah. Yeah. I totally agree with you. Okay. So we have that. How do you structure your hiring process? I'm always looking to be better at hiring. How do you structure it, and what would be your biggest advice to me on how I should optimize mine? [00:28:56] S0: Yeah. I think first define the skill sets you you need. Right? So for example, for a software engineer, it could be coding skills, system design, problem solving, and as well as culture fit. So we basically find, okay, who is the best coder in the company? Who is the best assistant design? And then we assign those people to assess those skills individually. And then at the end of the process, they kinda gets a grade, right, for every single step. If they're above a certain threshold, then we offer. And that's also how we decide on how much we offer, right? So as a company, we don't actually use any comp bands. We simply look at the grades, and the higher the grade, the higher bid. Because ultimately, we're buying skills.