The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
00:54:35 · George Sivulka, Harry Stebbings
[00:54:35] S0: Okay. We got we got some changing colors up here. Love it. [00:54:38] S1: Yeah. Yeah. I know. It's a full game show. There we go. It's like a fucking David Gutter concert. Perfect. Number one question, would you sell for $2,000,000,000 today? [00:54:49] S0: Would I sell for... [00:54:50] S1: No. What was the single best VC meeting? [00:54:52] S0: It's somewhere between, you know, Peter talking to me about anything but the business and deeply academic things and and Mike taking me on a walk around the the Woodside Horse Park, which [00:55:01] S1: is Do you trust Sam Altman? No. Who asked that question? Yeah. Okay. I I don't reveal my sources. But listen. I wanna do a quick fire round. I say a short statement. You give me your immediate thoughts. That sound okay? [00:55:16] S0: Sounds good. Let's do it. [00:55:17] S1: And what do you believe that most around you disbelieve? [00:55:19] S0: Oh, I have a crazy one. I I believe that UFOs are real. I think a little bit a little bit more on the nose right now, but I I actually believe there's fundamentally different propulsion technology, and that... And I think the US government has access to [00:55:32] S1: it. Wow. [00:55:33] S0: It's like [00:55:34] S1: It's very scary. [00:55:35] S0: I I have a lot of spicy takes as a specialist. [00:55:37] S1: Bring that out. What trait are you slightly ashamed of but has contributed to your success?
00:55:37 · Harry Stebbings, George Sivulka
[00:55:37] S1: Bring that out. What trait are you slightly ashamed of but has contributed to your success? [00:55:43] S0: I don't think I'm ashamed of it per se, but one thing that I I I always hid was the fact that I'm I'm deeply religious in an industry that's, like, very atheistic or agnostic. It was, like, something that I... That was very personal to me, And I think it's been massively contributing to [00:55:59] S1: How has it contributed? [00:56:01] S0: I think that ultimately when you're doing hard things or when you're you're you're chewing the glass or, you know, working all... Like, those really late hours, Believing in something larger than yourself or believing in what you do as a vocation or something that's deeply purposeful and deeply meaningful is actually... It's additional fuel. It helps you in a way that is, I think, good for the soul. It it it really charges you up. And and Do you pray? I do. I pray for an hour every morning. What? Yeah. I wake up. I sit on a meditation cushion. And I used to meditate. I thought... I think meditation's also great. Praying and then putting something out into the universe or or or, you know, actually having a dialogue with whatever you believe, I actually think is even more powerful. It's it's it's almost Do [00:56:46] S1: talk out loud? [00:56:47] S0: You know, I live by myself sometimes. So... But but but, sometimes it's it's all it's all on my I think I think it's incredibly good for the human mind. I think it's it's almost an antivirus for the human mind. And [00:56:58] S1: For an hour?
00:56:58 · Harry Stebbings, George Sivulka
[00:56:58] S1: For an hour? [00:56:59] S0: For an hour. Yeah. Yeah. I... Well, it's... You know, people meditate. Why is it so weird to pray? I think it's No. It's even better. [00:57:07] S1: I didn't know what I would say. [00:57:10] S0: When you when you dive into the human psyche and and you're not looking at your phone and and you're... Lot of the time, it's also a really great channel to think. I think a lot of a lot of the best ideas that I've had at Hebiah have have come from from moments of silence. Yeah. [00:57:25] S1: Gosh. I get up at, like, 08:20. My first meeting is at 08:30. There's, an espresso ready for me. I'm like, oh, fuck. Where are my shorts? Oh, god. Mom texted. Jesus. Anyway, I'm I'm here. I'm alive. Hi. So we have different morning routines. What's the gym routine? You're a fit dude. [00:57:44] S0: I try to try to work out every day. I I actually end up mostly channeling the the startup pressures and and anger and anxiety into heavier and heavier things and lifting heavier and heavier things. So it's it's nothing that's, like, in particular. [00:57:58] S1: Is Silicon Valley back as the center of all things?
00:57:58 · Harry Stebbings, George Sivulka
[00:57:58] S1: Is Silicon Valley back as the center of all things? [00:58:02] S0: Hebia, I think... There... You know, there there was a podcast that actually recently came out where everyone's like, if you're gonna build an AI company, you've gotta build it in Silicon Valley. But, you know, there is one company in New York that is doing a really amazing thing. That company is Hebia, and it seems like, you know, they're they're actually doing something interesting. And I I do think we are the exception rather than the rule, unfortunately. So I'm a big believer in Silicon Valley. [00:58:23] S1: Why? Why are you the exception? [00:58:25] S0: I think that we are a Silicon Valley company in terms of our style of work, in terms of how hard we work, in terms of of how we actually pursue new technology and and and invest in technology. And we started in Silicon Valley, and we have almost only Silicon Valley investors. [00:58:39] S1: What have you changed your mind on in the last twelve months? [00:58:42] S0: Longer than twelve months, probably, like, eighteen months ago, it was the scaling and inference thing, like, belief in, like, a new set of scaling laws and that they would be really, really, really important. [00:58:51] S1: ServiceNow Yeah. Salesforce or UiPath. [00:58:55] S0: Okay. [00:58:55] S1: Shag, marry, or kill. [00:59:01] S0: I wouldn't I wouldn't shag any of them. I I don't think that traditional [00:59:06] S1: Shag is like short term excitement. [00:59:09] S0: Oh, I I mean, I I don't think that In case you needed [00:59:12] S1: the context. Yeah. I
00:59:12 · Harry Stebbings, George Sivulka
[00:59:12] S1: the context. Yeah. I [00:59:14] S0: know exactly I know exactly what you're getting at here. I really... You know, I'd probably kill them all. I don't think that traditional enterprise b to b applications are sexy. We're an enterprise AI company. [00:59:26] S1: Are you a buyer of Salesforce? [00:59:27] S0: We are. We [00:59:28] S1: are. But everyone says Salesforce is fucked in this next generation. You think they are or not? [00:59:32] S0: I don't think they are. I think that, I think that Salesforce, like, has has built, again, like, a very, very, very sticky network effect with people, and people are the the the shifting function at the end of the day. It's it's not a technology problem. Claude can build a Salesforce. I think Klarna, again, had another Fugazi story about building... Like, not going off Salesforce because, you know, Claude had built them a CRM. And I just think that the the switching costs, the network effect of changing human beings' habits is too high. Salesforce is is one of those, like, monopolies in that they have so much stickiness, habitual stickiness. [01:00:05] S1: You can buy one company in the public markets that will be most benefited by the next wave of AI. Which company do you buy? [01:00:12] S0: That's a deep question. I would probably buy NVIDIA. It's a it's a lame answer or or AMD rather. I think AMD because I believe that they will benefit from the the shift to to inference scaling more than in an outsized way. [01:00:25] S1: You can be CEO of any other company for a day. Which company?
01:00:25 · Harry Stebbings, George Sivulka
[01:00:25] S1: You can be CEO of any other company for a day. Which company? [01:00:29] S0: Not a company. I'd I'd love to be mayor of New York, believe it or not. I just think that's, like, a fascinating job. I think it would be really, really interesting and would love to make some change there. [01:00:38] S1: What question are you never asked by investors, by angels, advisers, employees, journalists that you think you should be asked? [01:00:47] S0: I think that one of the most interesting questions is where does creativity stem from, or or where do you get inspiration from, or kind of like how do you come up with new ideas? Like, I don't I don't believe that people come up with new ideas by brainstorming or in... Like, I just think that's, again, Fugazi Fugazi. But I think that ultimately, that question of where creativity comes from... I'm I'm I'm also a very big painter. I'm a very big... So I I do large scale, like, 10 foot plus oil canvas, oil painting. I [01:01:15] S1: heard about this. Yeah. Where did that come from? [01:01:17] S0: I just... I I think [01:01:19] S1: Are you a poet as well? [01:01:20] S0: I I I love to write. I'm probably not as good a poet, but I I actually think that other creative outlets are are really, really [01:01:28] S1: good for coming. Me perfect kid [01:01:30] S0: at school. [01:01:31] S1: They're like pain If you want [01:01:32] S0: me to try [01:01:32] S1: to write it, [01:01:33] S0: then I will fall on my head. I I told you that story at the start [01:01:35] S1: of I mean, if you find... What do you find about painting good for you?