The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
00:34:40 · Adarsh Hiremath, Harry Stebbings
[00:34:40] S0: The next round is about over... About six months later. [00:34:45] S1: Six months later. You don't need the money at that point. Talk to me about that round. How did you think about taking the money then? [00:34:51] S0: It's interesting because we we, again, weren't focused on on fundraising. Right? We had built a a business that was doing a lot in revenue. You know, we're paying out tens of millions to [00:35:02] S1: How much is it doing in revenue at this point? [00:35:04] S0: 8 figures in in revenue. Right? And we were we were just like, let's be heads down. But just like we we felt with Benchmark, we we wanted to be, you know, in business with Sandeep and Felisa's and and the amazing team there, which made it a no brainer. [00:35:18] S1: Do you enjoy fundraising? [00:35:20] S0: Not really. Not really. Yeah. [00:35:24] S1: Do you have a board, Adash? [00:35:27] S0: We do. It's it's, you know, Brendan, Suri, and I and and Benchmark on the board. Is [00:35:31] S1: that it? [00:35:32] S0: That's it. Yeah. And, yeah, we we don't enjoy fundraising. I think the thing that we really, really enjoy is moving the business forward. That... That's always the thing that that founders enjoy the most. So we've been, you know, laser focused on that, and sometimes it just makes sense to to do the rounds. [00:35:48] S1: You said about 8 figures in revenue there when... I think you raised that one of the rounds. Were you aware of how fast the revenue scaling was? Like, were you guys looking at each other going, this is unbelievable?
00:35:48 · Harry Stebbings, Adarsh Hiremath
[00:35:48] S1: You said about 8 figures in revenue there when... I think you raised that one of the rounds. Were you aware of how fast the revenue scaling was? Like, were you guys looking at each other going, this is unbelievable? [00:36:00] S0: We definitely had that moment. At the time we raised that round, we didn't realize how much the growth was gonna accelerate. We knew of it. We were confident in it, but just the fact that it even exceeded our expectations, you know, wrapping up q one of of this year, is something that we're we're all, you know, really, really excited by. And talk to [00:36:20] S1: me about this new fundraise. Because this new fundraise is the Felices round. [00:36:23] S0: Yep. So the new fundraise was led by by Felices with, you know, other amazing investors, including GC, Benchmark, and others participating as well. [00:36:33] S1: And how much was this round? [00:36:34] S0: The round is a 100,000,000. [00:36:36] S1: And the price was? [00:36:37] S0: It was at 2,000,000,000. [00:36:39] S1: Yeah. What a phenomenal round, dude. Like, no, really, like, it's brilliant round. In terms of dilution, you dilute 5%, you get a 100,000,000 on the balance sheet. Phenomenal round for a company to do. [00:36:50] S0: Thank you. Yeah. We're we're really, really excited to be in partnership with Sandeep and the Felicis team. They're they're amazing. [00:36:57] S1: Do you need the money? Like, what are you gonna spend a 100,000,000 on? You guys make a load of money. You you got raised not long ago. What are you gonna do with a 100,000,000?
00:36:57 · Harry Stebbings, Adarsh Hiremath
[00:36:57] S1: Do you need the money? Like, what are you gonna spend a 100,000,000 on? You guys make a load of money. You you got raised not long ago. What are you gonna do with a 100,000,000? [00:37:07] S0: I think it gets really dangerous when people raise the money and then think that they just have to spend it immediately because they raised the money. Our goal isn't to deploy a $100,000,000 tomorrow. But Harry, I think the thing about our business is that labor aggregation and building this unified labor market, it's gonna take a long time. We just wanna make sure that we have a balance sheet that is kind of commensurate with that long term. [00:37:30] S1: Listen, I wanna do a quick fire round. So I say a short statement. You give me your immediate thoughts. Does that sound okay? [00:37:35] S0: Let's do it. [00:37:36] S1: Dude, what do you believe the most around you disbelieve? [00:37:39] S0: I think being a recruiter is the highest prestige position in any company. The recruiter is the one who controls the talent inflows and outflows of every company. Pretty much you can gather all you need to know about a company from seeing the talent inflows and outflows. The recruiting function of a company is the most underrated and undervalued. [00:37:58] S1: Does the whole we should do more with less efficiency on a per human basis, not go against McCorr and the importance of recruiters?
00:37:58 · Harry Stebbings, Adarsh Hiremath
[00:37:58] S1: Does the whole we should do more with less efficiency on a per human basis, not go against McCorr and the importance of recruiters? [00:38:07] S0: Actually, it goes with it. Right? Because efficiency is only possible if you find the right person. Solving that matching problem and finding the right person is really, really hard, especially with manual processes that don't scale. [00:38:19] S1: Who do you think is the best person in the world at what you do? And what have you learned from them? [00:38:24] S0: It's interesting. I've had this conversation with some members of the Macquarie team before. I think one thing that we like to joke about is that company execs are a lot like athletes in a lot of ways, where there's, like, this drive and desire to to win. Maybe... You know, I I had dreams of being a basketball player a while ago. Definitely not what I do today, but, you know, one person who I think really embodies that winning mentality is LeBron, and I like him a lot. [00:38:48] S1: So... Exactly. So, like, athletes, how do you treat yourself as an athlete? [00:38:52] S0: I think there's an element of pushing yourself to win, and focus on the right things and getting better every day. And that's just something that I think about. Right? How can I be the best version of myself tomorrow and be an even better version the next day, and continue that and have that compound for ten, twenty years? [00:39:08] S1: What have you changed your mind on in the last twelve months?
00:39:08 · Harry Stebbings, Adarsh Hiremath
[00:39:08] S1: What have you changed your mind on in the last twelve months? [00:39:11] S0: It's an interesting question. Part of it is the, you know, the SaaS answer I gave you a little bit earlier that over time, it's become pretty obvious to me that the next generation of SaaS will replace entire services end to end. And I think that realization has sort of been part of the reason that we've built Merkor in this way. [00:39:30] S1: What's one thing that you're doing today that you should stop? [00:39:33] S0: I have to be honest with you. I think probably my lime ride to the office when I'm running late for morning stand up. You know, we start at 9AM every day, and sometimes it's like I'm leaving my apartment at 08:55, and I'll just take a lime, go straight down the hills of San Francisco in the most unsafe way possible. So I should probably stop that. What do you [00:39:53] S1: know now that you wish you'd known when you started Makor? [00:39:56] S0: I would say just how hard it would be to to build a business like this. I told you, you know, back when we decided to start Merkur, it was like a complete, you know, emotional decision where Suri just looked at me and said, hey, man. How hard could this be? You know, Brendan came in with his optimism, and we just did it. And I'm thankful for that, but I I didn't really have grasped my mind around how hard building a business like this would be. [00:40:18] S1: You can have anyone on your board. Who do you have? [00:40:21] S0: I would have to pick Sam Altman.
00:40:21 · Adarsh Hiremath, Harry Stebbings
[00:40:21] S0: I would have to pick Sam Altman. [00:40:22] S1: You can ask Sam Altman any question. What do you ask Sam? [00:40:26] S0: I would probably ask him more about what AGI looks like. [00:40:30] S1: I know Sam. Sam would turn it back on you and go, why didn't you tell me first? What do you think AGI will be? [00:40:36] S0: When we achieve AGI or or sort of, like, think about AGI, it will certainly involve, you know, doing more economically valuable work. Right? So when more and more and more of economically valuable work has been automated to some extent, you know, research has been automated to some extent, broadly put that in the bucket of AGI. [00:40:54] S1: It's 2035. Okay? Final one. Where is McCaw then? Paint that picture for me of how big you are, how many people you've placed. Where is McCaw?