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

20VC: Why Market Always Wins Over the Founder & Why I Do Not Do Market Sizing | Why it is not the Best Time to be Investing but it is the Best Time to Have a Fund & The Type of Deals to do Today | Why The Best Founders Have 100 Year Plans with Wes Chan, C

Listen Later

Wes Chan is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at FPV Ventures, a $450M early-stage fund, launched earlier this year. Wes is an investor in five $10B+ "decacorns," his most notable being Canva where he is a member of the board of directors and led the Series A and C rounds. Wes also wrote the first or very early check into Plaid, Flexport, Gusto, Lucid, and RobinHood. Before FPV Wes was a Managing Director at Felicis Ventures and before Felicis Wes founded GV’s seed investing program. If that was not enough, as an operator, Wes co-founded Google Analytics and Google Voice and holds 18 US patents for his work in creating Google AdWords.

In Today's Episode with Wes Chan

1.) From Founding Google Analytics to Venture:

  • How did Wes make his way from founding Google Voice and Google Analytics to starting GV's seed investing program?
  • What are 1-2 of the single biggest product takeaways from working closely with Larry and Sergey @ Google?
  • How did Wes make his way from Google to Felicis and scaling the firm with Aydin Senkut?

2.) Market vs Founder: Why Market Sizing is BS:

  • Why does Wes believe that the market always wins over the founder?
  • That said, what does Wes mean when he says "the best founders have 100 year plans?"
  • How does Wes question and analyse 100 year plans? What makes the best? What makes the worst?
  • Why does Wes not do market sizing? Why does Wes not do outcome scenario planning?
  • What does Wes believe is the biggest fallacy of outcome scenario planning?

3.) The Venture Landscape:

  • Does Wes believe that now is really the best time to be investing?
  • Why does Wes believe there are some treacherous deals being done now? What are the signs that these deals are challenging?
  • What advice does Wes give founders fundraising in these markets?
  • What does Wes believe are elements that traditional VCs decide to do, which prevents founders from choosing to work with them?
  • Does Wes believe VCs on board truly provide value? If so, which ones and why them?

4.) FPV: Firm Building and Portfolio Construction:

  • With the new $450M fund, what is the portfolio construction that Wes chose?
  • Why does Wes prefer to have more lines in the portfolio than a concentrated portfolio?
  • Does Wes believe you can increase your ownership in your best companies over time?
  • How does Wes think about capital concentration on a per company basis?
  • What have been Wes' biggest lessons from his biggest hits and misses?

Items Mentioned in Todays Episode:

Wes' Favourite Book: Liar's Poker

...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