Fireside with a VC

E107 In this episode of Fireside with a VC, we discuss scenario planning for China & Asia and the relationship with Silicon Valley. We explore future opportunities with Francis Bassolino, Managing Director of Alaris Consulting, who has been helping companies of all sizes enter, succeed, and exit China over a span of 30+ years. Francis is also an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in Shanghai and Chicago. Having lived in Shanghai for over 21 years and in China since 1988, he brings extensive insights into the region.

We delve into the history of what has happened and the opening of China up to today. We also look at different scenarios such as an invasion of Taiwan, a blockade of Taiwan, no invasion or blockade, China with no reforms, with reforms, and the potential for a return to high growth in China. We examine how these different scenarios will impact the greater Asia region and the West.

Our discussion includes the relationship between China and Russia, particularly days before Russia invaded Ukraine when Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin announced their partnership has “no limits” and vowed to deepen cooperation on various fronts, including the Russia-Ukraine war. We talk about the bargain between the Chinese people happily giving up civil liberties for a prosperous life and 10% growth consistently over decades.

We also cover the impact of recent oppressive COVID-19 lockdowns, the period of low growth, the lack of job opportunities for the youth, and the generation of young Chinese not getting married, having children, or working in post-Jack Ma China. Is the Chinese economy in a freefall now?

Furthermore, we discuss the evolving relationship between Silicon Valley and China, what it might look like in the future, and different scenarios and opportunities for Western companies to grow revenues and lower costs with the Chinese partnership.

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E106 Fireside with a VC speaking with Ken Goldman, former President of Eric & Wendy Schmidt’s family office, former CFO of Yahoo!, Fortinet, Siebel Systems (acquired by Oracle), Excite@Home, Sybase, and Cypress Semiconductor. Discussed the changes in VC, going public and the reasons companies should go public again, the problems secondaries for founders create, how to leave a company ethically, general advice on how to win in the big leagues, selling Siebel to Oracle, the dynamics of changing CEOs, lessons learned from board of directors dynamics at Yahoo!, working with activist shareholders, how enterprise software companies should or should not go international, running Eric and Wendy Schmidt’s family office, and now speaking at family office and other conferences.

Find the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/krSWnl3eGco.

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E105 Fireside with a VC speaking with Venktesh (Venk) Shukla founder of Monta Vista Capital and former President of TiE Silicon Valley, Chair of TiE Global. Venk explains the core values and magic of TiE. We discuss what Venk learned from making his first 20 investments and how he developed his framework for his Monta Vista Capital seed stage VC fund and how he invests in pre-revenue and very early stage startups. We also discuss investing in AI, the secondary and exit markets.

Find the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/lrsNia672Eo.

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https://montavc.com/

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https://tie.org/

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E104 Fireside with a VC speaking with Bruce Barton, founder of Parkworth, Wealth Management for Tech Professionals in Silicon Valley and the author of Author of Personal Finance for Tech Professionals In Silicon Valley and Beyond. Discussing tax and personal finance issues specific to employees and founders of publicly traded and privately held tech startups and how equity compensation can get rather complicated and must be navigated to avoid being double taxed.

1) Double taxed on RSU share sales – How to avoid getting taxed twice.

https://www.parkworth.com/blogs/dont-pay-tax-twice-on-rsu-sales

2) AMT on ISO exercise –people who exercised incentive stock options (ISOs) and then get a big AMT (alternative minimum tax) bill that can be challenging to pay.

3) ISO exercise and QSBS – What people need to know about starting the 5-year clock for QSBS tax treatment on ISOs.

https://www.parkworth.com/blogs/6-rules-for-exercising-stock-options-to-qualify-for-qsbs?rq=qsbs

4)    83(b) elections –Why this is so important for founders.

https://www.parkworth.com/blogs/avoid-this-big-tax-mistake-when-founding-your-tech-startup?rq=qsbs

5) Retirement planning for people in tech - Is a career in tech different from other industries for retirement planning? How to operate in the fast lane of the Silicon Valley and prepare for retirement.

Find Bruce’s book, Personal Finance for Tech Professionals: In Silicon Valley and Beyond: https://rb.gy/wc0r2q

Find the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/jVtzqLyztPQ.

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#103 Every CANADIAN startup or investor should listen to this episode! Fireside with a VC speaking with Kevin Kliman CEO of Humi discussing getting healthy lowering costs, maintaining growth, the tradeoffs to consider raising a growth VC funding round or not, and when to raise. Discussing Humi’s business which is processing $4.5bn CAD of payroll every 4.5 months. Humi is the payroll, benefits, & insurance platform for Canadian companies. Discussing Humi’s new product for the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax incentives where Canadian startups get 66% of tech employee salaries back in cash.

Find the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ei1xRFoHIzY.

Find this and all full episodes for Fireside with a VC on your favorite podcast platform here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/FiresideVC.

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Episode #102 Fireside with a VC speaking with Tige Savage who cofounded Revolution with Steve Case, founder of AOL – America Online, one of the biggest internet companies in history reaching a peak market cap of $200bn dominating email, internet connectivity, online news, and chat. Tige discusses all things venture capital with a wealth of multi-decade experience covering a wide area of topics on how to run a high-performing VC fund year over year and best practices on investing, governance, legals, portfolio construction, sectors, overall strategy, and today’s exit market.

Discussing the organization of Revolution with 1) Revolution Rise of the Rest – their $150m pre-seed fund, 2) Revolution Ventures – the $150m VC fund Tige manages with a concentrated 15 portfolio companies per fund, and 3) Revolution Growth which continues to invest in Series B and beyond. Discussed the pioneering thesis of investing across the US rather than being concentrated in the Silicon Valley, New York, Boston or other highly evolved tech corridors and why Washington DC matters.

Find the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FzartNaPUoY.

Find this and all full episodes for Fireside with a VC on your favorite podcast platform here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/FiresideVC

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Fireside with a VC episode #101, Andrew Romans on The American Dreams Show with Alan Olsen discussing the future of venture capital covering Seed to Late Seed & Series A and Late Stage Growth VC and what has changed over the past few decades.

Alan Olsen is a fixture in Silicon Valley and cofounder of GROCO Family Office Advisors, Advisors to the Ultra Affluent and organizer of Legacy Builders. We Protect Our Clients’ Lifestyle & Resolve Complex Tax & Wealth Concerns

https://groco.com/family-office-services/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanolsen1960/

Contact us if you want to join Alan and his group of 50 family offices in Silicon Valley on May 15th.

Find the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MWoyTKUDskQ.

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Fireside with a VC episode #100 speaking with Vibhor Rastogi, Global Head of AI investments at Citi Ventures, discussing how to determine startup valuations and how much capital a startup should raise. How much to raise should be driven by enough time runway to achieve the next key milestone to unlock the next funding round - be that product, revenue, users or other measurable business milestone KPIs. How the market is changing. Expect to need at least enough time 1) to reach the next business milestone and 2) to raise the next funding round. Expect at least 2 quarters to raise the next funding round in today’s market. How much dilution should a startup expect to take from each funding round ranging from pre-seed to late seed, Series A, B, C, D? How to tie expected exit valuations to today’s valuation? What can a realistic exit be in a good scenario and a bad scenario? What are expected exit multiples and discounted to today’s valuation with the consideration of dilution from future funding rounds? How to calculate future dilution or reserve strategies for various ownership target percentages. Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) best practices at Citi Ventures – Citigroup. How to manage conflicts of interest as a strategic investor compared to a pure financial investor. How Citi Ventures can add value to startups across industry verticals.

Find the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/T7yffG5sJ3E.

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https://www.citi.com/ventures/

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Fireside with a VC episode #99 speaking with Matthew Calhoun, director at Equity Trust, formerly Midland Trust Company, discussing the benefits of investing into alternative assets such as venture capital funds using your self-directed IRA dollars. What is a Self-Directed IRA and what is different from other retirement accounts? What are the requirements, terms, and cost for this, and how long does it take? Help boost your retirement with this wealth-building combination of tax-optimized retirement accounts maximizing the potential of higher returns with less volatility by adding private market venture capital investments to your tax-advantaged account.

We are happy to introduce our listeners to Matt or contact him directly: [email protected].

Find the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/o9FslKnPrmU.

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Fireside with a VC episode #98 speaking with Eric Ver Ploeg, Founding Partner of Tunitas Ventures about key data and trends in the US tech Series A fundraising environment as well as specifics about how much cash funding a startup should raise at pre-Seed, Late-Stage Seed and Series A as well as the many other considerations with regards to terms and legal structures do’s and don’ts.

Eric Ver Ploeg, is a VC veteran and runs Tunitas Ventures a focused seed stage investing firm that assists portfolio companies raise their Series A. Eric shares research and data on how the ratio of San Francisco Bay Area startups have a higher graduation rates of completing a Series A than startups in the rest of the country and how this multiple has been rising in recent years. Check out a link to a blogpost Eric released on this topic today: http://rb.gy/3fzl3p.

https://tunitas.vc/

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Find the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/TUkan6oIbrs.

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