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By This Is Series A
5
1717 ratings
The podcast currently has 9 episodes available.
Many companies claim they’re a rocketship—but few mean it literally. As a young child growing up in New Zealand, Peter Beck, CEO of Rocket Lab, spent a lot of time stargazing. His fascination in space inspired a passion-driven career of building a billion-dollar rocket company. Today, Rocket Lab touts the highest launch success rate of any rocket company in history—and was the first private company in the southern hemisphere to go to space. In this conversation, he shares founder lessons on how to build an unlikely business, driven by passion.
Listen to all the Wish I Knew episodes: https://www.bvp.com/wish-i-knew
Failure. It's no fun, but it's a part of life — and big failures can often be the springboard to even bigger successes. That's why we're launching Wish I Knew, a new show from Bessemer Venture Partners about the revelatory, life-changing, "a-ha" moments that founders, CEOs and leaders discover along their business journeys and why taking risks leads to growth. Season 1 premiered on November 14th, so tune in.
The concept of compiling the world's knowledge in a single location dates back to the ancient Libraries of Alexandria and Pergamum, but the modern concept of an encyclopedia originated with Diderot and the 18th-century French encyclopedists. In this episode of This Is Series A, Talia Goldberg and Jeremy Levine speak with Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia and Fandom. Jimmy Wales shares his journey building the internet’s encyclopedia, the challenges along the way, and what other entrepreneurs and creators can learn from his experience.
Takeaways:
For more on This Is Series A, go here: https://www.bvp.com/atlas/this-is-series-a-podcast
In this episode of This Is Series A, Talia Goldberg and Jeremy Levine speak with Adam Dell, American venture capitalist, early investor and board member in OpenTable, and founder and CEO of Clarity Money, a personal financial management tool that helps people bring more transparency to your spending. The company was acquired by Goldman Sachs in 2018. Adam Dell is now a Partner and Head of Product at Marcus by Goldman Sachs.
Takeaways:
Why digital neo-banks are beneficial for consumers: “The internet and its reach will reduce the need for regional and local banks. The notion that you need a traditional branch to walk into is going away in the mind of the consumer. (Somebody has to pay for those marble columns and that burden has been on the consumer.) If a consumer can get a digital experience that allows them to do the things they need to do without having a physical branch, there's an enormous cost advantage.”
The future of US banking is seen in APAC: “I look to Asia as an example of what is to come in terms of personal finance trends. Ant Financial demonstrates the power of gamifying finance — Ant Financial offers rewards to its consumers for good financial behavior and also puts incentives in place to drive better habits. It’s a win-win for the company and the consumer. The most direct and important competitors in the personal finance ecosystem will not be traditional incumbent banks, but will be the Googles, the Apples, the Amazons of the world.”
Financing advice from someone who’s been on both sides of the cap table: “I raised money from people who knew me well and who were essentially making a bet on two things, the market and me. Many venture investors distill their investment thesis to those two things. Is this the right individual and is this the right opportunity within the market? I had some advantages there because the folks who backed me, again, as I said, have known me for a long time and have seen how I operate and how I try to tackle problems. The other thing I would say is that momentum is a very powerful thing when you're raising money. There's a fear of missing out on the next big thing and entrepreneurs can leverage that. The other thing is that I priced the Series A in a very reasonable way. (We raised three million at nine-pre.) It was a very modest, appropriate size of capital for the problem I was trying to solve in the first stages of the business."
Advice on how to bring others along your entrepreneurial journey: “It’s important to not be greedy with equity with your fellow teammates in this endeavor. I was very fortunate to find a VP of engineering, a head of data science, a head of data engineering, a head of mobile engineering. And I was generous with them from an equity standpoint because I knew that I needed them. One of the things that I fully believe is that spreading the equity-wealth gets people to feel as though this is part of their journey as well. And this is not a job, this is a mission. If they feel like an owner, they will give you more than you would get if they are just a salaried employee.”
In this special episode of This Is Series A, Talia Goldberg speaks with two visionary founders who have carved out new ways for technology to equalize access—Melanie Perkins, CEO and co-founder of Canva, and Rachel Carlson, CEO and co-founder of Guild Education. Canva empowers the average person with zero design experience to create beautiful graphics. And Guild places adult education within reach for millions of less economically advantaged workers. In this conversation, they share an inside look at what it takes to invent a new billion-dollar category.
Takeaways:
For more insights go to: https://www.bvp.com/atlas/this-is-series-a
Ankur Nagpal is the founder and CEO of Teachable, the online platform that enables people to sell individual online courses in subjects as varied as programming to cake decorating. A leader in the creator economy, he started the company in 2014, and after raising over $12.5 million in funding, there are now more than 100,000 digital instructors who have reportedly earned over $500 million on his platform. To learn more go to https://www.bvp.com/atlas/this-is-series-a
Takeaways:
Daniel Lubetzky is the founder and executive chairman of Kind, the multi-billion-dollar food company that’s become a household name. The Kind brand is known as a healthier snack food with a social cause. In this episode, Jeremy and Talia dive into Daniel’s entrepreneurial journey, the lessons other founders can gain from his experience, and how he built a food empire with a mission.
To learn more about the show go to bvp.com/atlas/this-is-series-a
Laura Behrens Wu is the co-founder and CEO of Shippo. Talia and Jeremy first met the shipping API company in 2017, and as early investors in Shopify, they observed firsthand the explosion of independent e-commerce companies. Thanks to Shopify, merchants could easily set up their stores online. Thanks to Stripe, merchants could easily accept payments online. Yet shipping remained complex and opaque. After our first meeting with Shippo, Bessemer quickly realized how their solution was the critical missing piece of the new “e-commerce stack,” streamlining and optimizing shipping operations for merchants of all sizes and types. In this episode, Jeremy and Talia talk to Laura about her entrepreneurial journey and Shippo’s evolution.
Takeaways:
To learn more about Laura's journey go to https://www.bvp.com/atlas/this-is-series-a
This Is Series A is a podcast about the builders and businesses that shape tech and internet culture, and the inevitable challenges and lessons that come out of early-stage entrepreneurship. In each episode, Talia Goldberg and Jeremy Levine, partners at Bessemer Venture Partners, talk to founders, CEOs, and internet philosophers about building startups and what keeps them inspired every day.
The podcast currently has 9 episodes available.