Series Tea

This week we’re having tea with John Bautista, Partner and Board Director at Orrick. As a partner in the Silicon Valley office, he co-leads the Emerging Companies Group, which advises emerging companies and venture capital firms. He is also a board member and co-founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, as well as an advisor and co-founder of Clerky.com.

This week we're having tea with Elizabeth Yin, Co-founder and General Partner at Hustle Fund, a pre-seed fund for software entrepreneurs. Previously, Elizabeth was a partner at 500 Startups where she invested in seed stage companies and ran the Mountain View accelerator. In a prior life, Elizabeth co-founded and ran an adtech company called LaunchBit (acq 2014). Elizabeth has a BSEE from Stanford and an MBA from MIT Sloan.

This week we’re having tea with Kevin Hartz, co-founder and chairman of Eventbrite. He's an early investor in startups like PayPal, Airbnb, and Pinterest. Most recently, he founded A-*, a new special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) which raised $200 million to acquire A-One and take it public.

In this episode, Kevin shares:

0:55: What a SPAC is and why he chose to start one

04:44: How he launched a SPAC in 60 days

15:45: The revenue number at which startups should go public

19:21: The difference between SPACs and direct listings

28:23: How SPACs work in practice

Want to hear more? Like the episode? Send us a note at [email protected].

This week we’re having tea with Andrew Ofstad, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Airtable. Andrew previously led the redesign of Google Maps and worked as a PM on Android.

In this episode, Andrew shares:

0:39: The timeline of getting Airtable to market

9:10: Tradeoffs between going after a narrow use case and building a horizontal product

17:05: How Airtable thought about pricing their pro account

Want to hear more? Like the episode? Send us a note at [email protected].

This week we’re having tea with Chris Lyons who leads the Cultural Leadership Fund at Andreessen Horowitz. The goal of the CLF is to connect great cultural leaders to the best new technology companies and enable more African Americans to get into tech.

Chris previously served as Chief of Staff at Andreessen Horowitz and worked with Jermaine Dupri as a music producer and engineer.

In this episode, Chris shares:

0:45: How Chris’ journey led him to A16Z and the CLF

5:10: Why CLF is tackling diversity on the cap table

14:07: What entrepreneurs can do to increase diversity in their own startups

Want to hear more? Like the episode? Send us a note at [email protected].

This week we’re having tea with Allison Barr Allen. Allison is the COO and co-founder of Fast, a one-click login and check out startup. They recently raised a $20m Series A from Stripe and Index Ventures.

Previously, she was Head of Product Operations for the Money team at Uber. She is also an angel investor with Trail Run Capital.

In this episode, Allison shares:

3:50: Why existing financial tools don’t serve customers well

5:30: Where she sees opportunities in fintech and payments

12:10: Why designing simple products is so challenging

14:00: How Fast thinks about brand and content

Want to hear more? Like the episode? Send us a note at [email protected].

This week we’re having tea with Semil Shah. Through his seed fund, Haystack, he's invested in 70+ startups including Instacart, DoorDash, and Opendoor. He's also a venture partner at Lightspeed.

In this episode, Semil shares:

- 2:48: What entrepreneurs need to know about portfolio construction

- 10:08: Why public markets aren't matching the private investment sector

- 19:30: How entrepreneurs can use valuation as a lever when fundraising

- 22:28: Why he passed on investing in Clubhouse

Want to hear more? Like the episode? Send us a note at [email protected].

This week we’re having tea with Brianne Kimmel, founder and managing partner of Work Life Ventures. She’s an investor in Webflow, Voiceflow, Tandem, and 20+ startups focused on the future of work. Business Insider recently named Brianne a top angel investor that every startup should know.

In this episode, Brianne shares:

3:25: Why productivity tools blur lines between consumer and enterprise

6:12: Tools to help remote teams stay connected

9:30: How companies can reimagine benefits for remote teams

13:30: Advice for startups to extend runway and limit churn

Want to hear more? Like the episode? Send us a note at [email protected].

This week we're having tea with Brad Flora, a Visiting Partner at Y Combinator. Prior to YC, Brad founded and sold Perfect Audience, an online advertising startup. He's an active angel investor and has invested in 150 startups around the globe.

In this episode, Brad shares:

4:08: How he broke into investing 

5:26: Why he bets big on international markets

13:16: Where he sees investment opportunities 

15:33: Why raising in Silicon Valley is harder for international startups

This week we're having tea with Cadran Cowansage. Cadran is the CEO and founder of Elpha, an online community for women in tech. Prior to founding Elpha, Cadran was an Engineering lead at Y Combinator and Senior Software Engineer at Mongo DB.

In this episode, Cadran shares:

1:55: How to know if building community makes sense for your company

5:05: What resources you need to invest in community building

8:45: Tactics to get a new community off the ground

13:10: How to building and monetize a healthy community

Want to hear more? Like the episode? Send us a note at [email protected].