Fireside with a VC

Episode #38 Jeff Epstein, Operating Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners and Lecturer at Stanford University, ex-CFO at Oracle, $250bn market cap, ex-CFO at DoubleClick sold to Google for $3.2bn. Talking about key milestones and metrics for VC investors. What VCs want. How many financings rounds a startup should go through on a path to an IPO exit, how much funding a startup should raise at each financing round, what valuations should be, what kind of dilution, how frequently they should raise, how many months of cash runway is healthy, what metrics should the startup show to VCs with regards to revenue, how much of an increase year over year during the life of the startup, other key metrics such as CAC to payback rather than CAC to LTV, churn, # of paying referenceable customers, product market fit survey, % of sales team reaching quota, churn of sales team, annual revenue growth, annual growth of revenue per customer, net renewal rate, gross margin, efficiency score, cash conversion score, customer concentration, Net Promoter score, when to double revenue, when to triple revenue, what it takes to justify a $1bn valuation, comparing metrics for SaaS companies, marketplaces and consumer companies. The changing dynamic of 2021 compared to previous years.

Bessemer Venture Partners was founded in 1911, has over $8 billion AUM,135 IPOs, 20 investing partners, 210+ active portfolio companies, offices in Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, London, Tel Aviv, Bangalore & Beijing.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/8LhFSiUG64c

[email protected]

Please use this link to invest in our 7BC VC fund on Angel List: https://angel.co/lead/sevenbc/lp-network/invite.

Please use this link to join our 7BC Syndicate on Angel List: https://angel.co/s/sevenbc/ZZAgQ.

Episode #37 Robert Siegel, Lecturer at Stanford University Graduate School of Business & VC on Fireside with a VC talking about his new book The Brains and Brawn Company: How Leading Organizations Blend the Best of Digital and Physical https://rb.gy/ctfxbb. Rob is also a General Partner at X-Seed Capital and Venture Partner at Piva Capital. In THE BRAINS AND BRAWN COMPANY, Siegel demonstrates how companies that bridge the digital and physical domains will have an advantage in coming years – just as Amazon has proven. Siegel provides a framework for ten key attributes companies must master—five each for the digital and physical realms—arguing that digital and physical excellence reinforce each other, achieving more in coordination than either can on their own.

1. Brain/The Left Hemisphere: Using Analytics

2. Brain/The Right Hemisphere: Harnessing Creativity

3. Brain/The Amygdala: Tapping the Power of Empathy

4. Brain/The Prefrontal Cortex: Managing Risk

5. Brain/The Inner Ear: Balancing Ownership and Partnership

6. Brawn/The Spine: Logistics

7. Brawn/Hands: The Craft of Making Things

8. Brawn/Muscles: Leveraging Size and Scale

9. Brawn/Hand-Eye Coordination: Managing Ecosystems

10. Brawn/Stamina: Surviving for the Long Run Siegel illustrates each with case studies—many based on CEO visits to his “Industrialist’s Dilemma” class or in-depth research and case studies, providing readers the feel of an all-access pass to several of the most popular courses at the Stanford GSB. From 23andMe, Instacart and Google to Kaiser Permanente, Desktop Metal, and Michelin, the examples demonstrate how to combine the best of both digital and physical attributes to grow a company. And Siegel shows leaders how to put the framework into action by becoming Systems Leaders, skilled at blending the best of digital and physical, recognizing emerging patterns, and making key decisions in a rapidly changing landscape.

video: https://youtu.be/f61n3-5MQrc

Please use this link to invest in our VC fund on Angel List: https://angel.co/lead/sevenbc/lp-network/invite.

Please use this link to join our Syndicate on Angel List: https://angel.co/s/sevenbc/ZZAgQ. 

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Subscribe to our YouTube channel Fireside with a VC to hear us talking with the world's top founders and VCs who are changing the world building amazing companies one brick at a time. You can also find us on all major podcast platforms here: https://anchor.fm/FiresideVC.

Episode #36 Nathan Rosenstock, Co-Founder & Co-CEO at Crafty on Fireside with a VC

talking about corporate culture BC (Before Covid) and AC (After Covid) and how the kegerator became the new water jug and led Crafty to become the leader as “the platform for employee consumption” driving corporate culture by developing a technology stack and product service offering delivering and servicing the delivery of beer, wine, coffee, drinks, snacks, food, best of breed work from home gear and essential devices to foster the most effective corporate culture when working in the office, from home and hybrid models. Discussed the genesis of the company from working at McKinsey to a full time funded startup, to the challenges of Covid when their customers shut down most of their offices due to Covid to pivots to supporting employees at home with box service offerings and a solution for WFH employees to gear up their home offices for productivity and well-being, culture and connectivity, employees coming together over food and beverage, the ROI of food and beverage, how does collaborative innovation happen in a remote work from home environment, how to get people to come to the office on a Friday, now how to get them to come in at all, in-office and remote activities, connectivity, convenience, new models for small companies to offer new shared services to offer a café, childcare, gym and other amenities as scale with economies of scale. Specifics on how to survive Covid when most revenues disappeared, details and psychology of firing people even when they are great employees to survive a Covid crunch, the value of talking to customers to figure out how to pivot or what service offerings to change, finding your value to customers, work from home essentials, desk gear, yoga mats, home microphones, etc. Discussing various dependencies of how, when and where workforces will return to offices compared to work from home – executive team culture, geography, cost of living and size of homes, seasonal weather, sales vs accounting departments - are all factors for when to come into the office again. When will office truly reopen? Advantages and disadvantages of launching a company in Chicago and growing to Silicon Valley, New York and other key markets. Video on Fireside with a VC https://youtu.be/DiO2gS8Jr3Y. https://craftydelivers.com/ https://box.craftydelivers.com/ 

Please use this link to invest in our VC fund on Angel List: https://angel.co/lead/sevenbc/lp-network/invite.

Please use this link to join our Syndicate on Angel List: https://angel.co/s/sevenbc/ZZAgQ. 

[email protected]

Subscribe to our YouTube channel Fireside with a VC to hear us talking with the world's top founders and VCs who are changing the world building amazing companies one brick at a time. You can also find us on all major podcast platforms here: https://anchor.fm/FiresideVC.

#chicago #startups #workfromhome #wfh #corporateculture #officeevents #officefoodandbeverage #NathanRosenstock #crafty #FiresideWithaVC #andrewromans #7BCventurecapital #rubiconventurecapital 

Episode #35 A brake from Fireside with a VC, Andrew Romans delivering a short keynote and doing Q&A with old friend John Ricci, MD of US Angels. Discussing new ways for angel investors to participate more actively in VC funds as Limited Partners, sourcing deal flow, conducting due diligence, taking boards seats, mentoring founders, advising portfolio companies, joining General Partners and Partners for meetings in Silicon Valley, Austin, New York, Miami, London, generating revenue as angels for participation and earning a share in a pool of carry for active LPs, and creating a path to become Venture Partners or Partners in the fund or open new 7BC funds in other countries. Video https://youtu.be/1v6aooshr-M 

Please use this link to invest in our VC fund on Angel List: https://angel.co/lead/sevenbc/lp-network/invite.

Please use this link to join our Syndicate on Angel List: https://angel.co/s/sevenbc/ZZAgQ. 

[email protected]

Subscribe to our YouTube channel Fireside with a VC to hear us talking with the world's top founders and VCs who are changing the world building amazing companies one brick at a time. You can also find us on all major podcast platforms here: https://anchor.fm/FiresideVC.

Episode #34 Taking a deep dive on SPACs with Adam Birnbaum, Executive Director at GP Bullhound, understanding how SPACs work, what are the moving parts and processes, taking a look at the different players from sponsors, IPO investors PIPE investors, target companies overall process and how some of these are changing. SPACs vs IPOs. What characteristics must a target company have for a SPAC to be an option, enterprise value, multiples on revenues or EBITDA. Timelines, costs, lockups and other details about how this works. After-market performance of these IPOs and completed transactions. Who are the players on the side of sponsors, IPO investors and PIPE investors? Overall what this means to startups and VCs from early-stage to growth investors and what we expect to happen in the future.

Please use this link to invest in our VC fund on Angel List: https://angel.co/lead/sevenbc/lp-network/invite.

Please use this link to join our Syndicate on Angel List: https://angel.co/s/sevenbc/ZZAgQ. 

[email protected]

Subscribe to our YouTube channel Fireside with a VC to hear us talking with the world's top founders and VCs who are changing the world building amazing companies one brick at a time. You can also find us on all major podcast platforms here: https://anchor.fm/FiresideVC.

Episode #33 Nitin Pachisia, Founding Partner of Unshackled Ventures, a pre-Seed, pre-revenue, pre-MVP venture fund in Silicon Valley that funds teams with at least one immigrant on the founding team. Discussing their model on how to support founders with capital and hands-on support as well as a specialty of helping companies deal with U.S. immigration issues. Also discussing the specifics of investing via convertible notes, SAFEs, side letter agreements, pro-rata equity rights and the emotional or earned pro-rata equity rights. Video podcast https://youtu.be/-rNsDozQJnc 

Please use this link to invest in our VC fund on Angel List: https://angel.co/lead/sevenbc/lp-network/invite.

Please use this link to join our Syndicate on Angel List: https://angel.co/s/sevenbc/ZZAgQ. 

[email protected]

Subscribe to our YouTube channel Fireside with a VC to hear us talking with the world's top founders and VCs who are changing the world building amazing companies one brick at a time. You can also find us on all major podcast platforms here: https://anchor.fm/FiresideVC.

Episode #32 – Karen McCormick, Chief Investment Officer of Beringea, a US & UK venture capital firm with approximately $750m of Assets Under Management focused on Series A investing discussing the innovative structure of Beringea’s publicly traded, listed VC fund, the advantages of being a publicly traded VC fund compared to the evolving secondary market for LP interests and how to optimize a transition from 2&20 GP - LP structure to a permanent capital fund structure listed on the stock market. Discussing what it’s like to be a woman in the male-dominated VC – startup ecosystem and experiences of female VCs and VC-backed founders. Discussing investment strategy of investing in capital-efficient startups on a path to profitability, the lack of need for unicorns and lower loss rates. Karen has been a VC investing at Beringea for over 14 years. Discussing the changes and evolution of the entrepreneurial mindset in the UK and Europe compared to 14 years ago. Touching on the evolution of valuation expectations, how much capital entrepreneurs raise and exit valuations. Video: https://youtu.be/5MdD86h1wbM 

Please use this link to invest in our VC fund on Angel List: https://angel.co/lead/sevenbc/lp-network/invite.

Please use this link to join our Syndicate on Angel List: https://angel.co/s/sevenbc/ZZAgQ. 

[email protected]

Subscribe to our YouTube channel Fireside with a VC to hear us talking with the world's top founders and VCs who are changing the world building amazing companies one brick at a time. You can also find us on all major podcast platforms here: https://anchor.fm/FiresideVC.

Episode #31 – Victoria Cheng is a Partner at PruVen Capital. PruVen was established in December 2020 with an anchor LP Prudential Financial with a $300m first multi-stage fund investing in the largest industries of the global economy across #FinTech, #InsureTech, #HealthTech, #PropTech, #EnterpriseIT. Discussing the current investment themes and strategy of the new fund, but also digging into the complexities of CVC aspects of managing a fund with a single LP and how to capture synergies for the corporate and the startup portfolio companies as well as best practices of CVC with a financial player as the single LP, investing during Covid and how this is evolving from the early days of the pandemic to now and how entrepreneurs and investors need Silicon Valley and New York networks, but do not necessarily need to live in those super-city centers. Video: https://youtu.be/lNdS3A7VJiM. 

Please use this link to invest in our VC fund on Angel List: https://angel.co/lead/sevenbc/lp-network/invite.

Please use this link to join our Syndicate on Angel List: https://angel.co/s/sevenbc/ZZAgQ. 

[email protected]

Subscribe to our YouTube channel Fireside with a VC to hear us talking with the world's top founders and VCs who are changing the world building amazing companies one brick at a time. You can also find us on all major podcast platforms here: https://anchor.fm/FiresideVC.

Episode #30 – Patrick Sheehan is a founder and Managing Partner of The Environmental Technologies Fund - ETF Partners which he established nearly 15 years ago. Discussing the evolution of environmental / cleantech / green / sustainable technology companies and venture capital’s ability to support them. How this has changed from 2006 before the term cleantech was a buzzword to the dark days of Solyndra and now the current state of capital efficient AI, ML and software driven innovation as well as the Industrial Internet of Things, Limited Partner climate and attitude to the sector, the willingness of large corporations to believe climate change exists and their responsiveness, the willingness of consumers, large corporations and governments to adopt green premiums for sustainable solutions, the tipping point of green technologies being profitable compared to conventional solutions, applying IT and AI to large industries such as shipping, supply chain, digitations, travel and all human workflows. Patrick has worked in venture capital since 1985, when he joined 3i. He was instrumental in founding 3i's venture capital practice, and later became the founding Managing Director of its Silicon Valley operation. Patrick was a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Invest Europe from 2007 to 2010, during which time he also chaired the Venture Capital Committee. Video of this podcast https://youtu.be/njvuY-xhg9k. 

Please use this link to invest in our VC fund on Angel List: https://angel.co/lead/sevenbc/lp-network/invite.

Please use this link to join our Syndicate on Angel List: https://angel.co/s/sevenbc/ZZAgQ. 

[email protected]

Subscribe to our YouTube channel Fireside with a VC to hear us talking with the world's top founders and VCs who are changing the world building amazing companies one brick at a time. You can also find us on all major podcast platforms here: https://anchor.fm/FiresideVC.

Episode #29 – Mohanjit Jolly, Cofounder & Partner of Iron Pillar, on Fireside with a VC talking about his strategy to invest in Indian-based growth companies and connecting them to Silicon Valley and around the globe for worldwide expansion. Brilliant VC fund strategy with a great track record and pedigree. Also talking about his time as a Managing Director at DFJ and Garage Technology Ventures working with Guy Kawasaki and Bill Reichert back in the day. Video of this podcast https://youtu.be/qEPPLMibOdg. 

Please use this link to invest in our VC fund on Angel List: https://angel.co/lead/sevenbc/lp-network/invite.

Please use this link to join our Syndicate on Angel List: https://angel.co/s/sevenbc/ZZAgQ. 

[email protected]

Subscribe to our YouTube channel Fireside with a VC to hear us talking with the world's top founders and VCs who are changing the world building amazing companies one brick at a time. You can also find us on all major podcast platforms here: https://anchor.fm/FiresideVC.