We team up with Mario from the Generalist and Packy from Not Boring for something new: The Idea Dinner!

We've been longtime fans of each others' work and, given all the buzz on Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces, decided to team up and run a little experiment: The Idea Dinner. Last night on Twitter Spaces we all got together and brought one beverage of choice, one public market investment idea, and one private market investment idea.

Despite some technical audio issues... it was a blast! We're super excited to share the recording here with everyone who couldn't make it. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Stay tuned for more to come!

Sponsors:

• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24

It's a kids game, it's a social network, it's... potentially the hottest IPO of 2021? We team up with Mario Gabriele from The Generalist + S-1 Club to break down Roblox's business and its prospects as a public company.

Sponsors:

• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24

Links

• Mario & friends' definitive S-1 Club analysis of Roblox's prospectus: https://www.readthegeneralist.com/briefing/roblox-ipo 
• Mario on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mariodgabriele
• Acquired: https://www.acquired.fm

With 2020 and (hopefully soon) the global pandemic coming to a close, both existing and new companies everywhere will soon face a choice of how to operate going forward. Embrace the "future" that was pulled forward by the pandemic and remain remote? Or return fully/partially to a physical office environment? For those who choose the future (and investors who are considering betting on them), Doist and its CEO Amir Salihefendić provide a 10-year case study of both the challenges that arise and the opportunities unlocked by embracing the internet to its fullest extent in growing and running an organization. And oh yeah — along the way they built a profitable, double-digit $m ARR business with 100 employees, that's been completely bootstrapped on $0 capital invested. We dive into it all!

Sponsors:

• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24

Topics Covered:

• Amir and Doist's journey from side programming project to bootstrapped, double-digit million ARR global business
• How they've operated as remote-only company for the past 10+ years, with 100 people across 35 countries and 10+ time zones
• Why just going remote but keeping the same tools and culture as in-person doesn't solve any problems and just creates more
• Why the temporal nature of work is just as (if not more) important than its physical location, and how the new modality of "asynchronous" work takes advantage of that
• How remote + asynchronous unlocks massive opportunities both for new companies and the tools to serve them

Links:

• Doist: https://doist.com
• Doist's "remote setup guide": https://twist.com/remote-work-guides/remote-company-setup
• "The CEO with an Empty Calendar":  https://superorganizers.substack.com/p/the-ceo-with-an-empty-calendar
• Packy's "We're Never Going Back" post: https://notboring.substack.com/p/were-never-going-back
• Amir on Twitter: https://twitter.com/amix3k

We continue our VC Fundamentals series with Portfolio Construction & Management — how do you build and manage a fund's portfolio as a whole, beyond each individual portfolio company and investment decision? We brought in two of the very best people in the world to help us dissect this topic: Jaclyn Hester & Lindel Eakman of Foundry Group. Jaclyn and Lindel have been early and longtime LPs in some of the best venture funds in the world: USV, True, Spark — and of course Foundry — and now also sit on the GP side of the table at Foundry. Tune in for a master class on how the best VC managers think about generating and optimizing fund performance. 

Sponsors:

• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24

Topics Covered:

1. The bar for what "good" venture fund performance looks like in terms of returns:

• Where venture sits on the spectrum of capital allocation options available to limited partners
• The difference between "gross" and "net" fund returns and why IRR is still important
• The distribution of returns across venture firms & funds — how many hit the performance bar — and the importance of diversification vintage years

2. Portfolio construction: how do you allocate the fund's capital across companies?

• Why have a "portfolio" at all vs. loading up on a few high conviction investments — and what an LP's incentives are for diversification vs. a GP's
• How to determine overall $ size you should target for a fund
• Concentration vs diversification and the concepts of "shots on goal" and "groups" of high-potential companies within a portfolio
• Fund reserves planning — are you "making your money at the buy", or able to buy up over time in your winners?

3. Balancing playing offense and defense:

• The upside potential of "interstitial rounds"
• Whether it's possible to save a company with more capital, and if pivots are a good idea

4. Time allocation vs capital allocation within a fund:

• Understanding and managing your own cognitive biases
• Why time & effort allocation across a portfolio rarely matches capital allocation (and shouldn't)
• Why a firm's partnership dynamics are typically the most important driver of funds' outcomes

 Links:

• Foundry Group: https://www.foundrygroup.com
• Seth Levine's post on skewed VC returns:  https://www.sethlevine.com/archives/2020/10/vc-fund-returns-are-more-skewed-than-you-think.html
• Fred Wilson's posts on losing money and portfolio outcome distributions: https://avc.com/2016/04/losing-money/and https://avc.com/2012/07/the-power-of-diversification/

Superhuman CEO Rahul Vohra joins us for an absolute masterclass on startup fundraising that shatters much outdated traditional wisdom in the space. We cover why it's possible to build momentum and raise even as a solo founder, how you should think about syndicates vs. "brand name" VCs, and why you always want to be preempted and how to make that happen. This episode is a 100% must-listen for anyone raising money now, or planning to in the future. 

Sponsors:

• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24

Topics Covered:

1. How to run a successful fundraising process 
   • Why founders should think about raising money as "creating a market" for their company's equity
   • How to build fundraising momentum, and why you shouldn't be afraid of using outsourced design and development agencies
   • Preempted fundraises vs marketed fundraises: why you always want to be preempted, and how to orchestrate that happening
   • Non-obvious ways that founders should think about runway, amount to raise and raise-timing in order to always have leverage in fundraising conversations
2. Round construction 
   • The value of "brand name" investors vs. non-traditional capital, and why you actually want both at different times
   • Why founders might want to raise their first capital from other founders and operators (versus from funds)
   • Why founders should put some of their own capital into early rounds
   • How to use high-resolution financings (SAFEs and convertible debt) efficiently
   • The concept of "interstitial financings", where you raise convertible debt in-between rounds, and when & how to use them
3. Investing while also being a founder/operator 
   • Time/attention allocation and why it's now possible to do both effectively
   • Flexibility to build positions over time vs. traditional fund structures
   • Rahul's own angel fund with Todd Goldberg
4. Bonus! The origin story behind the Superhuman name 

Links:

• Todd & Rahul's Angel Fund: http://toddandrahulangelfund.com/

Hello ACQ2! Posting the audio recording of our Book Club Zoom session with Emily Chang in digestible podcast form. For those who weren't able to attend, we hope you get as much out of the recording as we did being there live!

Sponsors:

• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24

Book notes public post: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/book-club-discussion-brotopia-with-emily-chang

GDoc version of book notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1939VQja1rIK9yP1Ahe4w2frPy4-nUYEH7pxwRk-WjBk/edit?usp=drive_web&ouid=110434699798216361855

Thanks as always,

Ben & David

We're joined by Posterous co-founder, former YC partner and current Managing Partner of Initialized Capital Garry Tan to go deep on how YC changed the game for company creation and seed investing, how they thought about building the "cult" of startups, and what lies ahead as the early-stage world continues to globalize and evolve more quickly than ever.

Sponsors:

• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24

Topics Covered (among others):

1. How the recruiting challenge for early-stage startups led to outside-the-box thinking 
   • Peter Thiel’s “crazy” (but not actually crazy) offer to Garry to join Palantir
   • Leveraging “cult” startup culture into a magnet for specific types of people
2. Y Combinator’s path from fringe to mainstream 
   • Insight that those same cult recruiting techniques could be applied at a meta-level to recruiting company founders themselves
   • Initial strong reactions to YC, and knowing they were on to something
   • The beginning of “influencer investing” with Paul Graham’s essays + Hacker News
3. The blooming of Seed as an asset class alongside and around YC 
   • The landmark deal with SV Angel and DST / Yuri Milner to “auto-fund” every YC company starting in 2011
   • YC scaling from ~10-12 companies per batch to 70-80 and now 200+ per batch
   • Starting Initialized Capital within YC, and then spinning it out into one of the largest independent seed funds
4. Influencer investing and startup evangelism going mainstream 
   • The impact of The Social Network movie
   • Exporting the ~”YC message” to the entire world: you can start a startup
   • The power of direct, bi-directional access to people via the internet

Links:

• Paul Graham’s Essays: http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html
• Hackers and Painters:  https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Painters-Big-Ideas-Computer/dp/1449389554/
• Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com
• Garry's (great) YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIBgYfDjtWlbJhg--Z4sOgQ

We continue our VC Fundamentals series with Company Building — everything that happens after you write the check. We catalog the different categories, strategies and tactics for VCs to "add value" to their portfolio companies, from direct involvement to portfolio services to simply doing nothing (often better than many alternatives!). For both of us, this is the best and most fun part of being an investor, and we hope that shines through in this episode. Here's to building great companies!

Sponsors:

• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24

Topics Covered:

• The goals of Company Building: 
  1. (Obviously) add value to your investments
  2. (Less obviously) increase your odds of finding/winning your next investments
• The four categories of company building: 
  1. "Direct" work by the GPs
  2. "Active" platform and portfolio services teams
  3. "Passive" brand halo effect
  4. Simply "doing nothing"
• Activities you actually do: 
  • Board work (both governance and strategic/operational planning)
  • Planning and orchestrating future financings and exits
  • Recruiting, closing deals and "selling"
  • Cofounder/executive disputes and departures
  • Pivots and company shutdowns
• And perhaps the most important company-building advice of all: Don't Freak Out.

Links:

• Our interview on the main show with Doug Leone:  https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/sequoia-capital-part-ii-with-doug-leone
• Fred Wilson's great post on pivots vs. shutdowns: https://avc.com/2018/11/pivot-or-fail/

Hello ACQ2! Posting the audio recording of our Book Club Zoom session with Will Thorndike from The Outsiders in digestible podcast form. Big thank you to Will and to all of you who made this a really special experience. For those of you who weren't able to attend, we hope you get as much out of the recording as we did live!

Sponsors:

• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24

Book notes public post:  https://medium.com/@AcquiredFM/book-club-notes-the-outsiders-569175957ab4

GDoc version of book notes:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gipiBGB_xnuQkPFVJVZ-XxSVjy6DSxwEloEN3qnloyA/edit

Outsiders Book Notes

• This fantastic book consists of eight case studies of “Outsider” CEOs who, borrowing the words of Warren Buffett’s quote on the cover, “excelled at capital allocation” and created enormous shareholder returns during their tenures.
• Btw, how crazy is it that Warren Buffett gave the cover quote? That rivals Reed Hastings writing the forward for 7 Powers. 😀
• All of the CEOs profiled (with the exception of Buffett himself) operated in the pre-internet and, in most cases, pre-private equity eras. 

Thanks as always for being on this journey with us,

- Ben & David

We dive into everything you need to know about SPACs — what they are, why they're a compelling alternative to IPO/DPOs, and how they might play an even more important role in startup financing going forward — with two of the very best people to teach us: Kevin Hartz and Troy "SPAC Professor" Steckenrider of the newly-minted $200m SPAC, AONE.

Sponsors:

• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24

TLDR:

• SPACs are an alternative path for companies to go public, however until recently they were mostly obscure and little-known/used.
• Meanwhile, the traditional IPO process has become onerous and broken: it takes 9+ months of company time, yet investors get only 15 minutes of management access and must make a decision in

Links:

• A* and ONE: https://www.a-star.co
• John Luttig's great Medium piece on SPACs: https://luttig.substack.com/p/spac-attack-everything-a-founder
• Bill Gurley on SPACs as an attractive alternative to IPOs/DPOs (posted after recording):  https://abovethecrowd.com/2020/08/23/going-public-circa-2020-door-3-the-spac/