 Kevin Niparko is the VP of Product @ Twilio. Kevin joined Twilio through the acquisition of Segment where he spent an incredible 8 years in numerous different roles including as Head of Product. Before entering the world of product, Kevin was a Management Associate at the world-renowned, Bridgewater Associates.    In Today's Episode with Kevin Niparko We Discuss:   1. From Bridgewater to Head of Product:    How Kevin made his way from the world of asset management and analytics to leading product teams? What are 1-2 of Kevin's biggest takeaways from his time at Bridgewater with Ray Dalio? How did the 8 year journey with Segment leading to their $3BN acquisition impact his approach to product?    2. What Makes a Great Product Person:    Does Kevin believe that product is more art or science? If he were to put a number on it? What would it be out of 100? Why does Kevin believe that all product people should learn to write? Why does Kevin believe that the best product people are generalists and not specialists? Why does Kevin think that analytics is an insanely good start for product people?    3. How to Hire the Best Product People:    How does Kevin approach the hiring process for product hires today? What are the non-obvious traits of hires he looks for? How does he test for them? Does Kevin use case studies? Where do many fall down? What do the best do?    4. Product Reviews: Good vs Great:    How often does Kevin do product reviews? Who is invited? How have product reviews changed in a world where the company is now fully remote? What is the difference between good and great product reviews? What is the single best product decision Kevin has made? What did he learn? What is the worst product decision Kevin made? How did that change his approach?  

20Product: Why Product Memes Are More Important Than a Product Roadmap, Why Writing is the Essential Skill for Product People, How AI Changes The Role of Product, Big Mistakes Founders Make When Hirin

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC) interviews the world's greatest venture capitalists with prior guests including Sequoia's Doug Leone and Benchmark's Bill Gurley. Once per week, 20VC Host, Harry Stebbings is also joined by one of the great founders of our time with prior founder episodes from Spotify's Daniel Ek, Linkedin's Reid Hoffman, and Snowflake's Frank Slootman. 

If you would like to see more of The Twenty Minute VC (20VC), head to www.20vc.com for more information on the podcast, show notes, resources and more.

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 Dan Siroker is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Limitless, a personalized AI powered by what you’ve seen, said, or heard. For his latest funding round, Dan took an unusual approach resulting in 1,000 preliminary offers with valuations as high as $1BN — and resulted in a $350 million Series A valuation. Prior to founding Limitless, Dan was the Founder of Optimizely, scaling the company to $120M in ARR and raising from some of the best in the business including Peter Fenton @ Benchmark who led the Series A.    In Today's Episode with Dan Siroker We Discuss:   1. Serial Entrepreneurs are More Investable:    Why would Dan always prefer to invest in serial entrepreneurs than first time founders?  How do serial entrepreneurs approach team building and size of team differently?  How do serial entrepreneurs approach focus and prioritisation differently?  How do serial entrepreneurs approach pivoting differently to first time founders?  What is Dan's advice from Elad Gil and YC's Dalton Caldwell on when to pivot?    2. The Secret to Fundraising: How to Speak VC    Should founders always be raising?  What is the right thing to respond to investors when they reach out to you outside of a round?  What question are investors really asking when they ask, how much are you raising?  How should founders approach valuation, what should they say when they are asked for it?  How can founders create urgency in a funding round? What works? What does not?    3. How to Raise the Best Funding Round:    Should founders engage with associates or only worth it with decision-makers?  Why should founders always choose the investor who is on the early arc of their career?  Why was Dan's first meeting with Peter Fenton the best meeting he has ever had with a VC?  Why does Dan believe that taking the highest price is never the right answer?  To what extent does having a true Tier 1 VC lead your round, change the game for your company?    4. Dan Siroker: AMA:    How did becoming a father change the way that Dan operates?  Why is Dan scared we might see technological progress stall for the next 20 years?  Why did Dan not do YC the second time around with Limitless?  What is the story of how Optimizely nearly bought Amplitude?    

20VC: Fundraising Wisdom that is Total BS; Dilution, Meeting Associates, Taking the Highest Price, Always Be Raising | Why Second Time Founders Are More Investable & Why Not To Hire People Out of Coll

 Tom Blomfield is a Group Partner at YC. Before YC, Tom founded two unicorns in the UK. He was co-founder of Monzo (most recently valued at $5BN), one of the first challenger banks in the UK. Monzo raised more than £1bn and counts 15% of the UK population as customers. Before Monzo, Tom founded GoCardless (YC S11), an online payments processor, most recently valued at $2.1BN.    In Today's Episode with Tom Blomfield We Discuss:   1. From Founding Two Unicorns to YC Partner:    Does Tom believe that all great founders show signs of exceptionalism early?  What does Tom know now that he wishes he had known when he started his first company?  Why did Tom decide now was the right time to switch from founder to investor with YC?    2. The YC Application Process: How it Works:    How do the YC partners select which companies are accepted vs rejected?  What specifically does Tom look for in the problem the company is looking to solve?  In the interview, what are the signals of the highest quality founders?  What questions does Tom always want to ask in YC interviews with founders?    3. The YC Batch: How it Works:    How do the YC partners work with the 25 companies in their batch? What is the interaction?  What are the single biggest mistakes companies make while in YC?  What are the biggest pieces of advice YC gives founders on fundraising approaching demo day?  How do the best YC founders fundraise and use demo day? How do the most nervous fundraise?  How are YC partners measured in terms of their success and effectiveness?    4. AI: Consumer vs Enterprise/ Infrastructure vs Application Layer:    Does Tom believe there is money to be made investing in infrastructure layer models today?  Why is the commoditization of foundation models the best outcome for society?  Why is Tom most excited about the application layer for the next wave of AI?  What are the most exciting opportunities in consumer AI that are wide open today?  20VC: Behind the Scenes at Y Combinator: The Interview Process | What the Best & Worst Do in the Program | Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | Why the Value is in Application Layer AI with Tom Blomfield 

20VC: Behind the Scenes at Y Combinator: The Interview Process | What the Best & Worst Do in the Program | Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | Why the Value is i

Larry Shurtz is the Chief Sales Officer at Genesys where he oversees the company’s global go-to-market strategies, including commercial activities, field sales and partner ecosystem operations. Larry has nearly three decades of experience in the software industry, from leading Confluent to delivering more than 60% revenue growth and doubling customer count as Chief Revenue Officer, to scaling a 1,300-person team at Salesforce to $2.1 billion in revenue. In Today’s Episode with Larry Shurtz We Discuss:   From Robotics Student to $2.1BN Sales Leader at Salesforce     How did Larry lead 1300 people to $2.1 billion revenue at Salesforce? What were his takeaways?   What did Larry learn about building vertical sales playbooks at Salesforce?   Which framework did Larry learn at Salesforce that he still uses at Genesys?     Mastering Sales Leadership     What are the biggest mistakes sales leaders make on prioritization today?   What are Larry’s “3 Rs” to master prioritization?   What does Larry think are the most common reasons fast-scaling teams break in sales?   Has Larry ever caused bad culture in a sales team? What did he learn from the experience?   Does Larry think sales is more art or science? How does Larry blend the two?     Building the Best Sales Team     How does Larry structure the hiring process for a new sales hire?   How big should your recruitment team be?    What are Larry’s most commonly asked questions when interviewing?   What were Larry’s biggest hiring mistakes? What did he learn from them?   How does Larry structure the comp? How does he get it right? What do most new hires care about today?     The Onboarding: The Dos & Don’ts     How does Larry structure the onboarding process?   Why does Larry onboard new hires with big customers? What is the buddy system?   How does Larry tell if a new hire is bad? What are the biggest red flags to look out for?   What does Larry mean when he says “You can make all the physical errors, you cannot make mental errors?”   Does Larry agree with Max Levchin @ Affirm that “When there’s doubt, there’s no doubt?”  

20Sales: How to Build Vertical Sales Teams, Why No Customer Success is BS and Everyone Needs it, How to Hire, Train and Retain the First Reps and Lessons Scaling to $2.1BN Revenue and 1,300 People wit

 Tom Hulme is a Managing Partner of GV (Google Ventures), and leads the European team. Today, GV has over $10BN in AUM and Tom has led investments in Lemonade.com (IPO), Snyk, Secret Escapes, Blockchain.com, GoCardless, Blue Vision Labs (exited to Lyft), and Currency Cloud (exited to Visa). Prior to joining venture full-time, Tom was one of Europe's most successful angel investors with a 5x DPI track record and 20x+ TVPI.    In Today's Episode with Tom Hulme We Discuss:   1. Lessons from a 24x TVPI Angel Track Record:    What are Tom's biggest lessons from his biggest winners angel investing?  What are Tom's biggest takeaways from the 0's in his angel track record?  What is the biggest advice Tom would give to angel investors starting out today?  What are the single biggest mistakes Tom sees angel investors make today?    2. The Four Pillars of Venture Capital:    What does Tom believe are the four key components of being successful as a VC?  Why does Tom describe VC as "being a founder on anti-depressants"?  How does Tom categorise the three different types of investors that exist?  Sourcing, selecting, servicing: What is Tom best at and what is he worst at?    3. The Conventional Wisdom in Venture That is Not True:    Why does Tom believe it is BS that you should never sell your winners?  Why does Tom believe he has never had complete conviction in any of the companies he invests in?  Why does Tom believe the "everything has to be a fund returner mindset" is BS?  Why naivety doesn't lead to great founders? Why employees at rocketships are the best founders?    4. AI: Foundation Models, Generative AI, The Incumbents: Where Does the Value Go:    Does Tom believe there is money to be made investing in foundation models?  Why does Tom liken investing in foundation models to investing in power stations?  Where does Tom believe there is value in the application layer?  Why does Tom think that generative AI is largely a sustaining innovation?  Why does Tom think Microsoft will win the next wave of AI? Who else is well-positioned?  Why does Tom believe there is a correlation between those that fear monger around AGI and those that need funding for their businesses?    

20VC: GV's Tom Hulme on Why Investing in Foundation Models is like Investing in "Power Stations", The Conventional Wisdom in VC that is BS & Lessons from a 24x Angel Track Record, 255x on Robinhood an

 Sarah Tavel is a General Partner @ Benchmark, one of the most successful and renowned venture firms in the world. At Benchmark, Sarah has led rounds in Chainalysis, Hipcamp, Medely, Rekki, Glide, Cambly and more. Prior to Benchmark, Sarah was a Partner at Greylock Partners. Before Greylock, Sarah was the first 30 employees at Pinterest. Sarah joined Pinterest in 2012 after co-leading the Series A investment while at Bessemer Venture Partners.    In Today's Episode with Sarah Tavel We Discuss:   1. Becoming a GP at The Most Renowned Firm in Venture:    How did the process of Sarah joining Benchmark start? How did it progress? What was it that convinced her to leave Greylock and join Benchmark?  What does Sarah believe makes Peter Fenton the world-class investor that he is?  What does Sarah know now that she wishes she had known when she started in venture?    2. Foundation Models: Is it All Going to Zero:    Will foundation models be commoditised?  Will 99% of the funding going to foundation models go to 0?  How does Sarah view the future of open vs closed source?  Why does Sarah believe that all frontier models of the future will be closed-source?  Why does the business model of foundation models remind Sarah of the food delivery business?    3. Application Layer: Where $BN Companies Will Be Built:    Why does Sarah believe that sustainable value-creating companies will be in the application layer?  How does Sarah determine between a wrapper on top of ChatGPT and true product value?  Are enterprises opening real budgets for AI today or are we still in experimental budgets?  How does Sarah think about how AI companies differentiate when there are so many in the same space of customer service, sales team support etc etc?  Why does Sarah believe that it is rational to pay more for these companies when investing in them?  What does Sarah mean when she says the future is "selling the work and not the tools"?    4. Inside Benchmark: How the Best Do Venture:    What is the one rule that Benchmark is willing to break when doing a deal?  Why do Benchmark aim to be the best recruitment firm in the world?  Why do Benchmark not agree with the concept of reserves?  In a case where Benchmark have lost, why did they lose? How did they change their approach?  

20VC: Benchmark's Sarah Tavel on Are Foundation Models Commoditising | Why Frontier Models Will Be Closed Source | Why the Value is in the Application Layer | The Future of AI is "Selling the Work" No

20Product: Why Product Memes Are More Important Than a Product Roadmap, Why Writing is the Essential Skill for Product People, How AI Changes The Role of Product, Big Mistakes Founders Make When Hirin

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