The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: Scaling from a $4M Angel Fund to $900M, Why Seed May Be The Best priced Asset Class and Not Overpriced At All & The 3 Stages of Fund Scaling and What it Takes To Build a Firm with Aydin Senkut, Founder and Managing Partner @ Felicis


Listen Later

Aydin Senkut is the Founder and Managing Partner of Felicis. An original super angel turned multi-stage investor, he has been named on the Forbes Midas List for the past nine years (2014-2022). Felicis has been an incredible 16-year journey starting with a $4M Fund I back in 2006, their most recent fund in 2021 was $900M. Along the way, Felicis has invested in over 45 unicorns including Adyen, Canva, Shopify, Notion, Opendoor, and Plaid. Prior to starting Felicis, Aydin was a Senior Manager at Google where he spent an incredible 6 years.

In Today’s Episode with Aydin Senkut:

1.) The Founding of Felicis:

  • How did Aydin transition from a successful angel to the first $41M institutional fund with Felicis?
  • How did Aydin's mindset change moving from investing personal to LP capital?
  • What does Aydin know now that he wishes he had known when he started Fund I?

2.) Fund Mechanics: Building a Portfolio

  • Why does Aydin believe portfolios need to have 40-50 positions to be diversified enough?
  • Given Aydin being multi-stage, how important is ownership on first check for Aydin and Felicis?
  • Does Aydin believe it is possible to really concentrate capital into your best performers?
  • How does Aydin think through outcome scenario planning? What is his biggest takeaway from this?

3.) Aydin Senkut: The Investor

  • What have been the biggest changes in Aydin's style of investing over the last 16 years?
  • What was Aydin's biggest miss? How did it impact his mindset moving forward?
  • What is Aydin's biggest insecurity as an investor today? How has it changed?
  • Where does Aydin still believe he is weak as an investor? What is he doing to combat it?

4.) The Venture Landscape:

  • Why does Aydin believe that despite the pricing, seed is the best risk-adjusted asset class?
  • How does Aydin evaluate where crossover funds will move with the death of many growth rounds?
  • What segment of the market will be hit hardest by the crunch? What worries with this?
  • What would Aydin most like to change about the venture landscape today? Why?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Aydin Senkut

Aydin’s Favourite Book: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The PitchBy Harry Stebbings

  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4

4.4

482 ratings


More shows like The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

View all
This Week in Startups by Jason Calacanis

This Week in Startups

1,276 Listeners

a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

a16z Podcast

1,060 Listeners

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors by SaaStr

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

176 Listeners

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy by Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

2,283 Listeners

Equity by TechCrunch, Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, Max Zeff, Theresa Loconsolo

Equity

338 Listeners

Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry by Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert

Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

792 Listeners

Y Combinator Startup Podcast by Y Combinator

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

226 Listeners

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg by All-In Podcast, LLC

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

9,263 Listeners

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups by Conviction

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

125 Listeners

The Ben & Marc Show by Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz

The Ben & Marc Show

123 Listeners

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley by BG2Pod

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley

469 Listeners

AI + a16z by a16z

AI + a16z

32 Listeners

Lightcone Podcast by Y Combinator

Lightcone Podcast

20 Listeners

Training Data by Sequoia Capital

Training Data

43 Listeners

Uncapped with Jack Altman by Alt Capital

Uncapped with Jack Altman

34 Listeners