The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

AGENDA:

04:27 Navan's IPO: Winners, Losers and 20% Crater

12:55 Harvey Raises $150M at an $8BN Valuation

35:36 Was Sam Altman Wrong to Snap at Brad Gerstner

41:25 Why GOOG is a Buy and Amazon is a Short

47:43 Meta Down 10%, Buy or Sell?

51:12 If You Have Not Accelerated with AI, You Are Dead

01:05:20 Why Now is the Best Time for Series A and Worst for Seed

Joelle Pineau is the Chief AI Officer at Cohere, where she leads research on advancing large language models and practical AI systems. Before joining Cohere, she was VP of AI Research at Meta, where she founded and led Meta AI's Montreal lab. A professor at McGill University, Joelle is renowned for her pioneering work in reinforcement learning, robotics, and responsible AI development.

AGENDA:

00:00 Introduction to AI Scaling Laws

03:00 How Meta Shaped How I Think About AI Research

04:36 Challenges in Reinforcement Learning

10:00 Is It Possible to be Capital Efficient in AI

15:52 AI in Enterprise: Efficiency and Adoption

22:15 Security Concerns with AI Agents

28:34 Can Zuck Win By Buying the Galacticos of AI

32:15 The Rising Cost of Data

35:28 Synthetic Data and Model Degradation

37:22 Why AI Coding is Akin to Image Generation in 2015

48:46 If Joelle Was a VC Where Would She Invest?

52:17 Quickfire: Lessons from Zuck, Biggest Mindset Shift

00:00 – "How Do You Stay True to Yourself When You Have to Perform for the World?"

06:00 – "Why Tim Ferriss Refused to Go All-In on YouTube"

09:00 – "You Don't Need 10 Million Fans—You Need 1,000 True Believers."

12:00 – "The Internet Is Not a Relevance Machine—It's a Sensationalism Machine."

15:00 – "Money Fixes Money Problems—And Nothing Else."

22:30 – "When Did Tim Ferriss Feel Completely Lost?"

27:00 – "The Million-Dollar Mistake That Still Haunts Tim Ferriss."

36:00 – "Why Tim Ferriss Never Raised a Fund—Even Though He Could Have."

45:00 – "The Truth About Uber, Duolingo, and the Power of Relationship Investing."

54:00 – "Why Tim Ferriss Stopped Angel Investing at His Peak."

1:04:00 – "The Podcast That Changed Everything."

1:15:00 – "The Real Cost of Love: Is Efficiency Killing Connection?"

1:31:00 – "What Tim Ferriss Has Changed His Mind About Most."

1:36:00 – "Erections Matter."

AGENDA:

05:17 OpenAI's Restructuring: Winners and Losers

17:17 Andreessen Horowitz's Raise $10BN in New Funds

26:38 Mercor Raises $350M at a $10BN Valuation

43:08 Spray and Pray: Does it Work: Data Breakdown

47:04 The Role of Option Checks Venture Capital

48:36 The Three Ways to Win in VC Today

54:26 Why IRR is a BS Metric and What Matters More

01:08:47 Amazon's Struggles: How Do They Return to Greatness in AI

David Cahn is a Partner at Sequoia Capital and one of the world's leading AI investors. At Sequoia David has led investments in Clay, Juicebox, Sesame, Kela, Stark, etc.. Before Sequoia, David was a General Partner @ Coatue where he led investments in Notion and Hugging Face.

AGENDA:

00:00 We Are in an AI Bubble

05:04 Why Building Physical Data Centres is a Moat

13:58 Winners and Losers in a World of AI

19:13 The Role of Big Tech and Monopolies

23:37 Breaking Down Circular Deals in AI: The Truth No One Sees?

38:19 Why Kingmaking is BS and VCs Do Not Make or Break Companies

41:30 The Importance of Margins in AI Investments

43:41 The Required Growth Rates in AI to Get Funded by Sequoia

45:30 The $0-$100M Revenue Club: Is Triple, Triple, Double, Double Dead?

51:53 Why the Most Important Hire for Startups Today is 23 Year Olds

01:01:19 The Future of Defence: Who Wins and Who Loses

01:10:15 Quickfire: Biggest Miss, Parenting Advice, Doug Leone Advice

Sandy Diao is one of the most exceptional growth leaders of the last decade. Sandy has scaled products to over 200M+ users and led growth teams at Descript, Meta and Pinterest. She is also a prolific writer all on things growth here.

AGENDA:

03:59 Biggest Growth Lessons from Pinterest

08:01 What is a Good vs a Bad Growth Hypothesis

11:11 Common Mistakes in Growth Strategies

14:57 Channel Fit: When You Have It & What To Do

25:43 Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) 101: How to Build a Paid Marketing Machine

30:08 How to Do SEO and Long-Term Growth Investments

33:22 Doubling Down on Successful Channels

36:31 The Unchanging Foundations of SEO

37:52 Generative AI Engines vs. Traditional Search Engines

41:12 Paid Marketing Channels: What's Overrated?

43:42 The Rise of User-Generated Content (UGC)

46:34 TikTok Ads: Expectations vs. Reality

49:55 Brand Marketing: What is Real vs What is BS?

53:33 The Importance of Feature Launches

01:01:50 Hiring for Growth: When and Who?

01:08:55 Quick Fire Round: Onboarding, Notifications, and Growth Channels

AGENDA:

04:50 Benchmark's New Partner: Everett Randall

10:19 Revolut Raises $3BN at a $75BN Valuation: Another Loss for Public Markets?

28:39 Why Today is as Bad as the Hype of COVID in 2021

32:10 Why Vertical SaaS is a Bad VC Investment Today

36:14 Why Everyone Investing in Legal SaaS Will Lose Money

44:16 Why King Making is More Real Than Ever

55:23 Why Your Smallest Customers Need to Pay $10K Minimum

01:01:37 Why VC is a S*** Asset Class

01:09:29 Why Today is Harder Than It Has Ever Been in VC

01:25:18 Closing Thoughts and Reflections

Alex Bouaziz is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Deel, the $17BN global payroll juggernaut that just last week announced their latest $300M fundraise led by Ribbit, a16z and Coatue. Deel has been on the most insane journey, they do $1BN+ in ARR, they just had their first $100M revenue month and they have been profitable for over 3 years.

AGENDA:

03:38 Announcing $300M Fundraise at a $17BN Valuation

06:24 Rippling vs Deel: WTF is Going On? Where is the Lawsuit?

14:01 Why 1-1s Are BS and Leaders Should Stop Doing Them

17:31 Do Rich Leaders Make Better Leaders

28:33 Biggest Lesson from Ben Horowitz? Why Most CMOs Are Bad?

34:48 Lessons from Nik @ Revolut and Why Companies Need to Make Their Own Software

42:23 Deel's Acquisition Playbook: Lessons from 13 Acquisitions

45:17 How to Price Acquisitions? How to Align Incentives with Founders?

55:45 Deel is Profitable and Growing Fast: When is the IPO?

01:01:35 Best Acquisition Ever + Worst Ever: What Did We Learn?

Zach Lloyd is the Founder and CEO of Warp, the next-generation developer terminal reinventing how engineers build and collaborate. Warp has raised over $70M from top-tier investors including Sequoia Capital, GV, Dylan Field, and Elad Gil. Before founding Warp, Zach was Principal Engineer at Google, where he led development of Google Docs, and later served as CTO at Time. He's one of the most respected engineering minds redefining the future of developer tools.

AGENDA:

04:14 Biggest Product Lessons from Rewriting Google Sheets

07:10 Why I Would Short Google: Leadership and AI Strategy

09:55 Comparing AI Models: GPT, Claude, and Gemini: Who Wins and Loses

17:04 Do Margins Matter in AI?

24:57 Adding $1M in ARR Every Week: Is Triple, Triple, Double, Double Dead?

33:58 How to Build Defensibility in a World of AI?

43:05 OpenAI vs Anthropic: Who Wins and Why?

44:25 Biggest Fundraising Lessons Raising from Sequoia, Elad Gil and GV

50:56 Why Sequoia are the Best VC

53:51 What Every Founder Gets Wrong in Fundraising

01:01:30 Quick Fire Questions and Final Thoughts

AGENDA:

03:44 Rory Is So Old He Worked with Arthur Rock!!!

07:28 Goldman Sachs Acquires Industry Ventures for $665M

16:37 Thinking Machines Co-Founder Raises $2BN and Then Leaves for Meta

29:36 SoftBank Goes for $5BN Leverage Against ARM Stock To Buy More OpenAI

39:35 More Data Centres Than Offices: Are We In a Bubble

43:28 Where is the Alpha in Venture in 2025

51:48 What 90% of Managers Get Wrong About Portfolio Management