The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
00:00:00 · George Sivulka
[00:00:00] S0: You can you can bucket great founders into into three backgrounds. I think probably the most common is that you had kind of a messed up childhood. The second most common would be, you're gay, and the third most common would be you were adopted. Look at, like, a list of of all time greats. Elon Musk kind of messed up childhood, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs adopted, Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, you know, like, publicly gay. And and I think that all of these early life experiences end up giving you some desire, some deeper passion to go out and prove yourself.
00:00:30 · Harry Stebbings
[00:00:30] S1: This is 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings. And today, we have one of the most wild stories in AI, Hebbeer. Three years ago, George Sivolka couldn't make his rent of $300 a month for a mattress on the floor. He snuck into Stanford dining room halls for meals after dropping out. He raised his first two rounds of financing with clothes hanging behind him on Zoom. Most recently, the company raised a whopping $130,000,000 and has investors, including Peter Thiel, Index, GV, and Andreessen. This is one of the most remarkable stories of the last few years. But before we dive in today, here are two fun facts about our newest brand sponsor, Kajabi. First, their customers just crossed a collective $8,000,000,000 in total revenue. Wow. Second, Kajabi's users keep a 100% of their earnings, with the average Kajabi creator bringing in over $30,000 per year. In case you didn't know, Kajabi is the leading creator commerce platform with an all in one suite of tools, including websites, email marketing, digital products, payment processing, and analytics for as low as $69 per month. Whether you are looking to build a private community, write a paid newsletter, or launch a course, Kajabi is the only platform that will enable you to build and grow your online business without taking a cut of your revenue. 20 VC listeners can try Kajabi for free for thirty days by going to kajabi.com/20vc. That's kajabi.com, kajabi.com/20vc. And after building your online empire with Kajabi, time to scale your global team with remote seamless hiring solutions. So every business is a global business in 2025. But how do you do payroll for your global business and team and comply with international labor laws? Well, remote handles payroll, benefits, taxes, stock options, and compliance to help companies of all sizes pay and manage full time and contract workers all over the world. Remote's global employment solutions keep your team, your finances, and your intellectual property secure. Remote never charges hidden fees, just best in class global employment solutions for a low flat rate. The world's top remote companies love Remote. GitLab, the world's largest all remote organization, trusts Remote to run their global team. Remote is funded by Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and the host of the greatest podcast ever, Harry Stebbingson 20 VC. Ready to learn more?
00:02:52 · Harry Stebbings
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00:04:24 · George Sivulka, Harry Stebbings
[00:04:24] S0: Yeah. And, I mean, it sounds like you did a lot of research, so thank you for diving deep, I'm really excited to meet you as well. [00:04:30] S1: As a venture capitalist, it's amazing the amount of free time you have. Talk to me... This is gonna be a fun show. Talk to me about your childhood. I spoke to Sanguine, and he was like, this was a really interesting part of me getting to know George. So talk to me about your childhood, and I'm leaving that deliberately open for you.
00:04:46 · George Sivulka
[00:04:46] S0: It is fair. And I think the first time I met with Sanghin, who's one of our investors at the series b, it was like a thirty minute lunch that turned into almost two hours of us talking in-depth about, the dynamics that that I think made me have a chip on my shoulder. But in short, I was born in Staten Island, New York City, which, you know, you already have a chip on your shoulder from that. Grew up kind of around New York City in in New Jersey primarily, which a second chip. But my mom, is probably like a mafia child, born and raised Staten Island, and my dad is an immigrant from Slovakia who grew up under the Iron Curtain and then immigrated, really escaped to The United States. They both of them actually fully intended to be professional athletes. They had four children, of which only one was a boy. And so, you know, you can imagine their dismay when I was, you know, chasing butterflies on the soccer pitch, or, like, falling on my head many times, which I I have plenty of stories of me literally, like, falling over while trying to dribble a basketball. And I think, you know, my whole childhood, was I was really just a math kid. Like, not very out there. I wasn't really talkative, only really good at math. And my parents barely even knew what Stanford was. So growing up, you know, you kind of have this whole misalignment of of who I was and who I wanted to be, with who they wanted me to be. That gave me this drive and desire and passion to go out and prove myself in a way that was really tangible. Maybe not only to them, but, like, hopefully to to my own kids one day.
00:06:11 · Harry Stebbings, George Sivulka
[00:06:11] S1: Did you have friends? [00:06:12] S0: I had a lot of friends who were incredibly nerdy. So we went to a public school. Like, I was the type of kid that would would hack the school tablets to put Starcraft on everyone's computer. And then, you know, we'd all, like, not be paying attention in public school playing star... You know? So there was a there was a a large enough contingent of kids that were also not athletes. [00:06:32] S1: Before when we were chatting, you said there are three archetypes. I don't know if you're willing to go into it. [00:06:37] S0: Yeah. I'm I'm I'm But of successful [00:06:39] S1: founders that you found as a trend. Can you talk to me about the different profiles? [00:06:44] S0: I'm I'm I'm happy to. I I always joke around and say that you can you can bucket great founders into into three backgrounds. I think probably the most common is that you had kind of a messed up childhood. The second most common would be you're gay, and the third most common would be you were adopted. Look at, like, a list of of of the all time greats. Elon Musk kind of messed up childhood, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs adopted, Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, you know, like, publicly gay. And and I think that all of these early life experiences end up giving you some desire, some, like, deeper passion to go out and prove yourself.