ACQ2 by Acquired

Ben & David take their turn at the "power ballad" of VC blogging/podcasting, explaining how venture term sheets work. From valuation to pro rata rights to founder vesting, we leave no stone unturned in this episode. If you're a founder, work at a startup, or are considering doing one of those someday, this episode is for you!

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast:

Acquired.fm

@AcquiredFM

Links from the Show:

Acquired LP: Lyft Episode

Acquired LP: Demystifying Corp Dev (Sara Adler)

AR&D Letter of Intent to DEC         

Brad Feld: Venture Deals

CooleyGo.com
GAAP

Jeff Bezos, Vesting, and The Divorce                      

Perkins Coie Accelerator

SeriesSeed.com

Standard Series Seed Term Sheet [Link in Bio]

We’re joined by Upfront Ventures partner Kevin Zhang to discuss the evolution of both Upfront as a venture firm and the LA tech ecosystem more broadly. We cover the journey from Upfront’s founding as “Global Retail Partners” in 1996 to its place today as the premier and largest tech investor in Southern California. We talk about rebranding the firm and choosing Upfront as a name, launching the Upfront Summit, what LA is "good and not good at", and Kevin’s thesis around gaming as a great place for venture investing.

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

“80% of the worlds workforce doesn’t sit at a desk, and 95% of the world’s software is built for people who sit at a desk. Once people build software for the other 80%, the size of the addressable market that could be created could dwarf what we currently have, which is pretty humbling to think about.”

Jake Saper, Emergence Capital (@jakesaper)

We dive deep into the nitty gritty details of SaaS investing and company building with the best in the business, Jake Saper from Emergence Capital. Emergence has been around since the beginning of the SaaS industry and -uniquely for a venture firm- is entirely focused on early-stage investing within it. They were early investors in major successes like Salesforce, Veeva, SuccessFactors, Box and Yammer, and more recently, Gusto, Zoom, and many more. 

This episode is a must-listen for anyone investing in, operating in, or thinking about modern SaaS companies!

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast:

Acquired.fm

@AcquiredFM

Links from the Show:

Emergence Capital

Emergence Capital – “Series-A SaaS Metrics”

Emergence Email Newsletter

We continue the conversation with Emily White, covering topics including her career path, what it was like working with Sheryl Sandberg for so many years, her time at Snap, her experience serving on public company boards, and how she operates as an investor now at Anthos Capital.

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

As promised in our holiday special, we dive into the past, present and future of clean energy funding, with the absolutely perfect guest: the former Obama administration Assistant Director for Entrepreneurship at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Doug Rand. This episode was totally eye-opening for us, and we hope inspires many of you to think about energy and climate through an entrepreneurial lens. 

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Links:

• ARPA-E: https://arpa-e.energy.gov
• Steve Blank’s Secret History of Silicon Valley: https://steveblank.com/secret-history/
• NSF Innovation Corps: https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/i-corps/

Ben and David talk about some of their current investment theses at PSL and Wave, as well as how VCs think about themes and theses in general. 

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Links:

• Greg McAdoo “Wave” talk at Startup School 2008 https://youtu.be/fZ5F2KhMLiE
• The Myth of the Job Hopping Millenial https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2018/7/11/17559484/gig-economy-jobs-rooted-rootless-moving-job-hopping-millennials

Ever wondered what's really going on during the Monday Meetings of your friendly neighborhood VC firm? Ben and David take you behind the scenes to discuss structure (especially how the management company works), staffing, LPs, and most importantly decision-making and motivations for VC firms and their partners. Whichever side of the table you're on, we hope you find this episode useful!

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Ben and David continue the Acquired holiday tradition. Happy holidays to everyone!

Note: we apologize for David’s sound quality... we’re still working out the kinks on our mobile recording setup.

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Extended carve-out links:

• Books: 
  • David: Broken Earth trilogy https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B01947LZ8A
  • Ben: eBoys  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC1HTG/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
• Article: 
  • David: “My Dad's Friendship With Charles Barkley”  http://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2018/12/14/lin-wang-charles-barkley
  • Ben: Birth of a New American Aristocracy  https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/06/the-birth-of-a-new-american-aristocracy/559130/
• Podcast: 
  • David: 996 Podcast https://996.ggvc.com/category/podcast/
  • Ben: Dissect Season 2 https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dissect/id1143845868?mt=2
• Music: 
  • David: Tiny Desk concerts https://www.npr.org/series/tiny-desk-concerts/
  • Ben: Odesza’s A Moment Apart &  https://open.spotify.com/album/3VzsvmhnUb9OZ59bq2aoNZ?si=dHUDPR4tSW2u6yey0MWTFw
• TV / Movie: 
  • Both: Black Panther https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/
• App: 
  • David: Steady Health https://steady.health
  • Ben:
    • Moment https://www.shopmoment.com
    • Weather Line: http://weatherlineapp.com
    • Auto Sleep http://autosleep.tantsissa.com

Ben and David discuss “the art of the pitch” through the lens of fundraising for seed-stage companies, but the takeaways are also (hopefully) applicable far beyond!

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

Links:

• Sequoia pitch deck template:  https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/writing-a-business-plan/#
• Don Valentine talk at GSB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKN-abRJMEw
• Jim Goetz talk at GSB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnmYSze9M2g

Ben and David are back for episode #3, with special guest Dan Hill. Dan discusses:

- How his startup, Crashpadder, got acquired by Airbnb

- Why Airbnb succeeded, and why marketplace businesses in the US have an advantage in early growth

- How they decided on growth metrics at Airbnb

- How his new company, Alma, is making charitable giving simple

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra