The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
00:35:32 · Alan Chang, Harry Stebbings
[00:35:32] S0: I don't care what they think. [00:35:34] S2: And you don't worry about them leaving? Because, like, for my best performers, for your use, when Nick at Revolut is saying that to you, Nick should be terrified that you leave. You're a core part of that business. I I want to protect you and look after you. And when you say, dude, there's a lot of reasons why, I don't know, Poland didn't work in the expansion and da da da da. Okay, Alan. Like, you're my guy. I'm here for you, and thank you for explaining that to me. I want to protect my best performers. [00:36:00] S0: Well, I would say I don't think that's protecting. Right? That's just hiding, you know, information from your best performers. Right? Ultimately, your best performers, like, they're they're smart. They're hardworking. They're not dumb. Right? And initially, I took that feedback to HOT, and I was resisting it at first. I thought it was unfair, right? But then I thought more about it, and it made me a better person, right? So I thank him for sending me the article. What I found is usually top performers internalize as negative feedback very well. They take negative feedback too hot, and they find ways to improve. If there are people who don't take negative feedback well, I don't think they're top performers. [00:36:35] S2: What was the bit of feedback that you found most hard to take?
00:36:35 · Harry Stebbings, Alan Chang
[00:36:35] S2: What was the bit of feedback that you found most hard to take? [00:36:38] S0: You you have to assume the person giving you negative feedback have the best intentions for you. And once you realize that and it's nothing personal, you can take all negative feedback, even if it's very harsh. [00:36:48] S2: Was there a bit of feedback that you found the hardest to give? [00:36:52] S0: No. It's very important you have that you create a culture of truth seeking. And the truth is very ugly, might hurt someone's feelings, you should still say it because it'll make that person better. [00:37:02] S2: Is there anything that you shouldn't say because it ultimately doesn't make them better? [00:37:07] S0: Well, if it keeps giving negative feedback to a person that they haven't improved, then I I just stop bothering. They can leave the company. [00:37:13] S2: Do you think there's a bit of a culture of fear around you? Like, if you look... Again, I love Nick, and I think he's a phenomenal leader and one of the greatest founders I've ever interviewed ever, and I've done a thousand founder interviews. But, I mean, that's not... I don't know whatever the right term. Let's not shy away from it. Mhmm. People are scared of him. Is it bad to have a fear based leadership? [00:37:32] S0: What matters is people need to feel like they can speak the truth. [00:37:36] S2: And you do with Nick? [00:37:37] S0: Yes. I tell him if I think it's a bad idea, I tell Nick. Now he can disagree with me, and sometimes I change his mind, sometimes I don't. But I do tell him the truth.
00:37:37 · Alan Chang, Harry Stebbings
[00:37:37] S0: Yes. I tell him if I think it's a bad idea, I tell Nick. Now he can disagree with me, and sometimes I change his mind, sometimes I don't. But I do tell him the truth. [00:37:46] S2: What specific decision on product or strategy do you think moves the needle most with Revolut? Was there one, like, have to go into crypto. We have to go into stock trading. We have to do x country. We have to invest in x. [00:38:01] S0: No. Because the answer is we need to do everything. Yeah. I think as we build a company, we realize there's so many opportunities, and we just need to pursue all of them. [00:38:10] S2: That advice is completely counter what every founder is being told that you need to focus. You need to create a product for a very specific customer base and you need to deliver that excellent experience and focus, focus, focus. There's so many shiny objects, you can't pursue them all. Yeah. That advice is completely counter that. What would you say to them listening who are now confused?
00:38:10 · Harry Stebbings, Alan Chang
[00:38:10] S2: That advice is completely counter what every founder is being told that you need to focus. You need to create a product for a very specific customer base and you need to deliver that excellent experience and focus, focus, focus. There's so many shiny objects, you can't pursue them all. Yeah. That advice is completely counter that. What would you say to them listening who are now confused? [00:38:30] S0: I I actually think there are not enough ambitious founders out there. Because ultimately, the the throughput of the company, like how many parallel work streams you can take at a given time, is dictated by a number of great leaders you have in the company. And the zero sum mindset will be, okay, I only have that many leaders in the company. But in some cases, it could just be the founders himself. Therefore, I'm just gonna pursue these things. The expansionist mindset would be, I need to hire more leaders in my company so I can pursue more. Right? So I'll argue we're in the business of expanding things. So rather than you try to play the zero sum game, we should try and figure out ways to know, hire more leaders so you can pursue more. [00:39:08] S2: What does your direct report structure look like? Jensen has popularized the... Having, you know, 50 and being so involved in the minutiae of a large amount of the business in terms of surface area. To what extent do you agree with that versus to delegate to fantastic leadership like you kind of mentioned there in terms of increasing surface area?
00:39:08 · Harry Stebbings, Alan Chang
[00:39:08] S2: What does your direct report structure look like? Jensen has popularized the... Having, you know, 50 and being so involved in the minutiae of a large amount of the business in terms of surface area. To what extent do you agree with that versus to delegate to fantastic leadership like you kind of mentioned there in terms of increasing surface area? [00:39:26] S0: Yeah. So I would say... Yeah. I I think I've made direct reports. I I don't know how many. I I would probably lean towards what Jensen's doing because ultimately, I I don't even think of them think of them as direct reports. Right? I think of them as... You know, going back to self guiding missile analogy. Right? You don't need to manage those people. Like, you discuss and you debate about the target. Right? But once you both agree on the target, then that's it. Right? You don't really have to manage them. You just monitor and make things that are okay, but that's about it. [00:39:55] S2: Talking about monitoring and management, your offices are in Canary Wharf. Not the obvious place for startups in London. Mean, Shoreditch became the most famous Silicon Roundabout. Why are you in Canary Wharf?
00:39:55 · Harry Stebbings, Alan Chang
[00:39:55] S2: Talking about monitoring and management, your offices are in Canary Wharf. Not the obvious place for startups in London. Mean, Shoreditch became the most famous Silicon Roundabout. Why are you in Canary Wharf? [00:40:06] S0: So first of all, it's it's probably the only place in London where you can keep expanding offices. Right? So you can keep upgrading office without incurring a big penalty in a lease. Second reason, it's it's far away from party. You know, there... If you if you if you work around here, it's... There's this thing going on this bar, right, or this this club. Right? I think there's too much going on in West London. Too many distractions. What's going on with the... There's nothing going on. It's just work and nothing else. So [00:40:32] S2: Do you not think that, like, I live here, but I'm fucking disciplined? I don't go to parties. I don't drink. I I don't do anything but work and gym. Is that not the secret to being a great entrepreneur? Discipline. [00:40:42] S0: I think so, but I'm talking about other people in the team. You know, it's like if you see a, you know, a full bar downstairs, I think you're tempted. Right? You might, oh, I'm gonna, you know, pop down for a pint. [00:40:53] S2: Right? Do you expect people to work weekends?