Podcast appearances and mentions of dave mcclure

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Best podcasts about dave mcclure

Latest podcast episodes about dave mcclure

This Week in Startups
Bill Gates foresees massive AI job loss: these VCs disagree | E2330

This Week in Startups

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 26, 2026 91:28


This Week In Startups is made possible by: Lightfield https://lightfield.app Northwest Registered Agent https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Rippling https://Rippling.ai/twist   Today's show: *Bill Gates dropped a 6,000 word warning: AI will be "the greatest equalizer ever invented, or the worst sort of injustice." The Microsoft icon has an AI agenda for the US: new national institutions, AI use taxes, and jobs legally reserved for humans only. Our VC roundtable guests — Sheel Mohnot (Better Tomorrow Ventures), Dave McClure (Practical Venture Capital), and Hussein Kanji — push back hard. Is taxing profits a better fix for AI taking jobs than taxing the tokens themselves? PLUS: Meta's $17B kids safety settlement… does it go far enough? Why does Stripe want OpenRouter? A peek at the VC's actual portfolio mark-ups. AND begun, the AI agent wars have. Our panel chooses between OpenClaw, Instinct, and Grok Bot. Guests Sheel Mohnot on X: https://x.com/pitdesi Better Tomorrow Ventures: https://www.btv.vc/ Dave McClure on X: https://x.com/davemcclure Practical Venture Capital: https://practicalvc.com/ Hussein Kanji on X: https://x.com/hkanji Hoxton Ventures: https://hoxtonventures.com/ Relevant Links GatesNotes: "The turbulent AI era is here": https://www.gatesnotes.com/a-turbulent-ai-era-and-critical-choices-to-make NPR: Meta settlement coverage: https://www.npr.org/2026/08/26/nx-s1-5944781/meta-settlement-child-safety-lawsuit TechCrunch: Stripe agrees to buy OpenRouter: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/16/stripe-will-reportedly-acquire-ai-gateway-startup-openrouter-for-7b/ Skild AI S1 Demo: https://www.skild.ai/blogs/s1 Instinct AI agent (waitlist): https://instinct.co/ TechCrunch: Instinct coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/24/instincts-powerful-ai-assistant-is-raising-privacy-and-security-concerns/ CNBC: OpenAI CFO says IPO is coming in 2027: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/19/open-ai-ipo-timing-2027-friar.html Basis: https://www.getbasis.ai/ TaxGPT: https://www.taxgpt.com/ Cusp AI: https://cusp.ai/ Abacus: https://goabacus.co/ Micro1: https://www.micro1.ai/ Mottu: https://mottu.com.br/ EquityBee: https://equitybee.com/ Kiva: https://www.kiva.org/ Timestamps: 0:00 It's Hussein's first time on the VC Roundtable! 2:09 Gates says "turbulent era" for AI is here 8:56 Microloans, Kiva, and "universal basic income" 9:23 Thanks to our partner, Lightfield, the AI-native CRM that updates itself, so you never have to! Try it for free at https://lightfield.app 13:00 Why sole proprietorships may be AI's biggest beneficiary 20:29 Got a new business idea? Northwest helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more, with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain 21:00 Should the gov't take a stake in AI labs? 30:24 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist to get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business. 32:44 Meta's $17.1B settlement 45:14 Is anything still fundable outside of AI? 46:29 Stripe and SpaceX deals 55:54 Skild AI's pancake flipping demo 59:49 Sheel's Hottest Takes 1:04:37 Dave's Charts 1:09:07 Who loses money when there are no IPOs? 1:16:49 The Agent Wars heat up 1:24:56 Everyone's favorite investments   Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp   Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons   Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis   Thank you to our partners: (0:00) PARTNER - AD BLURB (0:00) PARTNER - AD BLURB (0:00) PARTNER - AD BLURB Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/   Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland   Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis   Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

Keen On Democracy
We Are (Not) the Champions: Why Silicon Valley Isn't Providing an AI Human Dividend

Keen On Democracy

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 23, 2026 39:49


What's the truth about our AI future? Our guests have different takes. On the one hand, Dave McClure and Aman Verjee predict a $7 trillion future for just three AI startups in 2027. On the other, Salima Bhimani doesn't believe that Silicon Valley has the imagination to create the moonshot to address our jobless future. For That Was The Week publisher Keith Teare, it's a time for what he calls “champions.” What he wants is the development of a “human dividend” from intelligence. Supposedly this will be provided by the multi-trillion dollar AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic that will pioneer the social ownership of intelligence. But a Norwegian-style Human Wealth Fund is about as likely, I suspect, as a new Freddie Mercury recording of “We Are the Champions.” Dream on. Salima Bhimani is right. The moonshot to fix our jobless AI future won't come out of workaholic Silicon Valley. Look elsewhere for those types of champions, my friends. Brazil perhaps. The movie, not the country. Five Takeaways •       The Zeitgeist Exaggerates. The week's split screen: a $7 trillion future for OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX on one side; Ed Luce's “AI phobia” consensus and Jill Lepore's AI-versus-the-people politics on the other. Keith's contrarian read: the negativity is loud but thin. Most intelligent people already use AI daily — from high school onward — and simply don't talk about it; weigh the happy users against the vocal critics and the users “massively dominate.” He suspects a tipping point has been reached, with the anti-AI minority “starting to sound a little cultish.” The political stakes are his real worry: if the Democrats mistake the noise for populism and run against AI, they will lose 2028 “quite heavily” — and Lepore, he charges, is writing opinion, not history.•       Who Are the Champions? The editorial's diagnosis: the problem isn't negativity but “the lack of vocal connection between AI and people's futures.” The champions exist — but they hedge everything into pointlessness, “trained as politicians as opposed to business leaders,” each with a little voice saying don't upset anybody. “Can you imagine any other major breakthrough in human history where people would be shy to champion it?” His roster pointedly omitted both Dario Amodei and Elon Musk (“fairly balanced with who I left out”); the goal is to assemble the articulate case so “the minority who are politicizing negativity can be exposed as a minority.” Andrew's genealogy for the project: Nixon's silent majority, reborn with a token budget.•       90% Sacks — and Squashed Armadillos. The hour's fault line ran through David Sacks's tweet: Dario believes frontier AI is “too powerful to distribute”; Sacks believes it is “too powerful to centralize,” fearing a marriage of corporate and state power. Andrew took Dario's side; Keith claimed the middle until Andrew invoked the Texas rule — the only thing in the middle of the road is squashed armadillos — and extracted a confession: “I agree with Sacks, I'd say, 90%.” The 10% is Keith's own position: happy with centralized giants (free intelligence needs their investment) and happy with the growing edge — the world's intelligence in a solar-powered box, no grid required. Dario is championing “handcuffs on AI”; Lepore's car-regulation analogy fails because corporations are already regulated and AI itself is safe; and Helen Toner's Hugging Face alarm, aired on Ezra Klein's podcast, was “contrived in a lab” — a dismissal that sparked the hour's frenemy flashpoint: “Are you telling me I'm ignorant of something?”•       Metering the Dividend. Keith solved Andrew's billing mystery on air: the $100-a-month Claude plan that throttled him last week has a quota page he never found — and the price is “actually a very generous amount. They're losing money on you.” The honest price would be $200 to $400. Hence the editorial's champion, Stripe: its acquisition of OpenRouter — which routes every prompt across all the models to the cheapest good answer — puts the payments company in the middle of the token traffic stream. Azeem Azhar's $6 AI agent points the direction: prices tending toward zero at the edge, free for the kid, the school, and the hospital, paid for by the company running three thousand agents — even if delivering intelligence to six billion people ultimately costs tens of trillions. The parable: a Chinese dumpling shop built an agent API so customers' AIs could place orders, and sales went through the roof — the corner store getting a website, circa 1994. “You could do it with Keen On,” Keith noted. Meanwhile founders live like Captain Kirk on the bridge — productivity through the roof, but the agents must be flown daily.•       The Human Dividend. The coda: Keith's book is done, and its name is settled — The Human Dividend, asking who owns intelligence. Written in two days, cut from eighty thousand words to sixty in three more — seventeen chapters rewritten paragraph by paragraph in an AI agent's two-panel editor, purging repetition and AI-isms until “it was a Keith Teare-written book.” The thesis in one line: intelligence is the central product of this era; its surplus is co-produced; the property should be too. The mechanism: a Human Wealth Fund on the Alaska-Norway model — one share per person, given not bought, expiring at death with no inheritance — funded by AI companies donating equity on day one and governed by its own constitution, no state involved (unlike Trump's $1,000 baby accounts: what the state gives, the state can take away). The pitch to the companies: owners, not just users, are how you win affinity. Sell it or give it away? To be continued in two weeks — Andrew is off to Italy, and Manchester United, who lost to Hull, are off the champions list entirely. About the Co-Host Keith Teare is the co-host of the weekly That Was The Week segment on Keen On America and editor of the That Was The Week tech newsletter. Founder and CEO of SignalRank Corporation, he was previously a founder of TechCrunch (with Michael Arrington), Archimedes Labs, EasyNet, and cyber café Cyberia. A serial entrepreneur across four decades of Silicon Valley and London tech, he writes weekly on the state of innovation — and is completing his first book, The Human Dividend. References: •       That Was The Week — Keith Teare's newsletter; this week's editorial: “Who Are the Champions?”•       Ed Luce's Financial Times column on “AI phobia” as America's new consensus — its third invocation on this show in a week.•       Jill Lepore's FT weekend essay and new book on “AI versus the people” — the politics of 2026 and 2028, per America's best historian.•       David Sacks's tweet on Dario Amodei — “too powerful to distribute” versus “too powerful to centralize” — the hour's fault line.•       Helen Toner's conversation with Ezra Klein on the Hugging Face incide...

Keen On Democracy
Our Seven Trillion Dollar Future: Dave McClure & Aman Verjee Burst the AI Pessimism Bubble

Keen On Democracy

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 17, 2026 55:42


“Anthropic will be a $3 trillion company, SpaceX $2 trillion, and OpenAI $1 to $1.5 trillion by Q2 of next year.” — Dave McClure Yesterday, Keith Teare and I debated the circularity of the AI economy. Today, two of Silicon Valley's most experienced investors, Dave McClure and Aman Verjee, not only straighten out this supposed “circularity” but also burst the pessimism bubble that envelops so many conversations about AI. Verjee is not only McClure's partner at Practical Venture Capital, but also the author of the newly published A Brief History of Financial Bubbles. According to him, today's AI-stoked economy is not an unusually large bubble. It may not even be a bubble, given that AI revenue — from Anthropic's $70 billion to OpenAI's $50 billion — is real. The irrational exuberance lives elsewhere — in companies “draping themselves in AI magic sauce” and in the “SaaSpocalypse” that is decimating software-as-a-service companies. They are both bullish about our AI future. McClure predicts that by the first half of next year, Anthropic and OpenAI will have joined SpaceX as public companies. Together, these three AI darlings will be worth $7 trillion. That's seven thousand billion reasons to be optimistic about 2027. Five Takeaways •       Not a Bubble — a Repricing. Both partners reject the bubble call, on the numbers: Anthropic at roughly $70 billion in revenue on under two gigawatts of compute, OpenAI at $40–50 billion, SpaceX guiding to $100 billion with more than half from AI — real revenue, increasingly real profits. The froth is specific: companies “draping themselves in AI magic sauce” without the substance, and the SaaSpocalypse — cloud-software companies whose cash flows are suddenly perceived as far less durable as AI encroaches on design, legal, and medical verticals. Michael Burry's warning gets Aman's definitive treatment (“he's called nine of the last two bubbles”), and the Aschenbrenner blowup was leverage — running four-x in volatile chip stocks — not AI: he kept his Anthropic position, is married to Dario's chief of staff, and “will be just fine.”•       The $2 Trillion Filing. The week's news, baked into the episode: Anthropic has filed to go public, with a very intentionally leaked $2 trillion valuation hinging on a $190–200 billion 2028 revenue forecast — which Dave suspects is conservative. Eight months ago, when these two last visited, the show was about Elon and Sam and Dario was the bit player; then came the weeks when decades happen: Anthropic's bet on coding agents — reportedly inspired by watching Cursor — captured the revenue engine of the entire application layer. Aman's sequencing: SpaceX is absorbing $75–85 billion of IPO capital, Anthropic goes next, and if both trade well, 2026 breaks every record for money raised — leaving 2027 for OpenAI at a $100 billion revenue guide. Google, he reminds us, went fourth after Yahoo, Lycos, and Excite: better to do it right than to do it first.•       The Fastest Pivot in Corporate History. Dave's account of SpaceX's transformation: the $250 billion xAI merger (a largely private transaction Elon approved with himself), the acquisition of Cursor that closed Friday, Colossus data centers scaling from two gigawatts toward ten, and compute deals renting capacity to Anthropic and Google — former competitors — all executed in roughly six months. The S-1, with unprecedented forward projections of $300 billion in annual revenue, mentions artificial intelligence over 1,100 times (“I used AI to count it,” Aman admits). The result is an economy Andrew calls incestuous: SpaceX's valuation now rests on Anthropic's progress. On Elon himself, Dave separates the art from the artist — terrific products, dubious politics — and on OpenAI: more board changes than Spinal Tap had drummers, a team still storming and norming, but Sam is savvy and the IPO lands by Q2 next year at $1–1.5 trillion.•       Circularity as Asset Class. The New York Times sees a vulnerability in tech giants funding their own customers; Aman, a former CFO at eBay and Sonos, sees asset-backed finance. His analogy: buying a Corvette with GMAC financing isn't a conspiracy as long as the terms are commercially reasonable — and NVIDIA's $500 billion backstop, syndicated with Goldman Sachs, Apollo, Brookfield, and KKR, brings third-party money that validates the asset. GPUs, he argues, are cars rather than smartphones: financeable over eight to ten years, not obsolete in three. The red flags to watch are rebates and self-dealing on non-commercial terms; the current evidence looks more like aircraft leasing than Enron. Dave's deeper worry isn't the AI economy at all — it's the national deficit, whose interest payments are now the largest single line item in the federal budget.•       The Luddite Summer Meets the Long Boom. Aman's sharpest historical observation: this may be the first technological revolution whose leaders are the doomers — Sam prophesying idleness, Dario predicting half of entry-level white-collar jobs destroyed within five years (already wrong at eighteen months, with no 10–20 percent unemployment in sight). Against the WSJ's jobless-boom and nation-of-Luddites anxieties, the book offers the long view: of ten historical bubbles, the two positive ones — Britain's 1845 railway mania and America's 1997–2000 internet boom — overbuilt, crashed, and left the world a valuable technology. Buy every stock founded in the boom and hold, and you'd have owned NVIDIA, Amazon, Google, and PayPal. The 1970s wiped out four to six million secretarial jobs in a decade; women's participation rose from 52 to 77 percent. And on China, the free-trader's answer: partners in progress — there's more to gain than lose if we do this right. About the Guests Dave McClure and Aman Verjee are the co-founders and managing partners of Practical Venture Capital, a Silicon Valley firm specializing in venture secondaries. Dave founded 500 Startups, invested at Founders Fund, and ran marketing at PayPal; Aman was COO of 500 Startups, led strategy at PayPal and eBay, served as CFO of Sonos and of eBay's North American marketplace — and wrote the first draft of PayPal's S-1. Aman's new book, A Brief History of Financial Bubbles (out this week), is available at bigbubbletrouble.com. References: •       A Brief History of Financial Bubbles by Aman Verjee — ten manias from the tulips to the subprime crash, out this week at bigbubbletrouble.com.•       Reuters on Anthropic's IPO filing — the $2 trillion valuation and the $190–200 billion 2028 revenue forecast it hinges on.•       “The Summer That America Became a Nation of Luddites” and the “jobless boom” — the Wall Street Journal pieces threading this week's episodes.•       The New York Times on tech giants' circular AI economy — the piece that framed yesterday's TWTW debate and today's rebuttal.•       The SpaceX S-1 — forward projections of $300 billion in ann...

Run The Numbers
Dave McClure and Aman Verjee on Angel Investing at Scale, 500 Startups, and Practical VC

Run The Numbers

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 20, 2026 60:59


On this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Dave McClure and Aman Verjee of Practical VC to talk about the evolution of startup investing — from the PayPal mafia and Founders Fund era to 500 Startups, YC-style scale, and today's secondary market.—SPONSORS:Rillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to replace NetSuite and close faster. With revenue recognition, close management, multi-entity support, and native Stripe and Salesforce integrations, Rillet helps scaling companies run their finance stack in one place. Hundreds of teams, including Windsurf and Mercor, use Rillet to make the zero-day close real. Book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cjMaximor is an autonomous finance platform that runs order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, the close, cash management, and reporting on self-learning agents instead of a dozen disconnected tools. One PE-backed customer cut their close in half, took audit findings from seven to zero, and cut back-office costs by 70% in six months. You pay for outcomes, not seats. See it at https://www.maximor.ai/Brex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metricsAnrok is the sales tax platform that watches your exposure everywhere, automates compliance, and flags risk before it turns into a surprise back-tax letter from a state you've never set foot in. Companies like Anthropic, Notion, and Vanta already trust Anrok to stay ahead of rules that move faster than any spreadsheet can. Talk to a sales tax expert for a personalized exposure estimate at https://www.anrok.com/rtnRightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.comPulley is an equity management platform that lets you issue options, model dilution, and complete 409As without your cap table turning into a spreadsheet disaster. Founders raising, hiring, and scaling use Pulley to keep equity clean and stay focused on building. Learn more or request a demo at https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics—LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsNGuests:https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemcclure/https://www.linkedin.com/in/aman-verjee/Company:https://practicalvc.com/CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com—TIMESTAMPS:0:00 Preview and Intro3:00 Writing as a distribution strategy5:17 How Dave's blog led to Founders Fund7:24 Aman: writing at PayPal and law school9:29 PayPal: the red pen of David Sacks11:44 Sponsors — Rillet | Maximor | Brex14:59 500 Startups: the original thesis16:22 The volume strategy: more shots on goal18:44 Twilio, Lyft, Sendgrid, Credit Karma20:15 60x returns: right place, right time23:07 Sponsors — Anrok | RightRev | Pulley25:58 Accelerator ecosystem evolution28:42 500 vs. YC: scale as a weapon32:52 Globalizing the accelerator model35:04 Seed to secondaries: how it happened37:00 Scratching their own itch for liquidity38:10 The secondary market explained40:50 Types of secondaries43:29 Why would a VC sell a winner?46:07 Managing DPI as a late-stage manager47:02 The five horse framework49:15 Skipping the J curve51:44 Imperfect information as a feature55:22 Landmines: fraud, mismarked valuations57:00 VCs lie about valuations three ways57:58 Forward contracts and counterparty risk1:00:29 Credits

The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
We are in a Bubble of Bubble Talk, Not in a Real Financial Bubble

The Sure Shot Entrepreneur

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 10, 2026 39:38


Aman Verjee, Founder and General Partner at Practical Venture Capital, shares his view of how venture capital has evolved over the past two decades and why secondary markets now play a critical role in the ecosystem. Drawing from his time at PayPal, eBay, and Sonos, Aman explains how companies today stay private far longer than they used to, what that means for early investors and employees, and how thoughtfully structured secondary transactions can reduce friction and misalignment on the cap table. He also challenges popular narratives around tech bubbles, walking through historical examples to explain why today's AI-driven market looks fundamentally different.In this episode, you'll learn:[01:11] Aman's journey from Wall Street to Practical VC[03:40] What made the early PayPal team exceptional[06:32] Follow the customer, not the original plan[10:44] Why are startups staying private longer today?[11:17] What secondary transactions actually are[18:41] How founders should handle secondary requests[26:11] Are we in a tech bubble today?The nonprofit organization Aman is passionate about: AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization)About Aman VerjeeAman Verjee is the Founder and General Partner of Practical Venture Capital, a secondary-focused fund providing liquidity to early investors in late-stage private companies. Before launching Practical VC, Aman spent over a decade in finance and operations roles at PayPal and eBay, joining PayPal in 2001 before its IPO and witnessing its transformation from a money-beaming mobile app to the dominant payment platform for eBay. Earlier, he worked in investment banking in New York after studying economics at Stanford and constitutional law at Harvard Law School. Aman was recruited to PayPal by Peter Thiel and worked directly for David Sachs during the company's pivotal early years. Now partnering with Dave McClure, he focuses on Series C and D investments in SaaS and FinTech companies with $200M+ in revenue and clear paths to liquidity within 5-7 years. He's also writing a book on the history of financial bubbles and co-hosts the Trading Places podcast, analyzing private company valuations.About Practical Venture CapitalPractical Venture Capital is a secondary-focused venture firm that provides liquidity solutions for early investors, employees, and funds. Operating with a 7-year fund structure instead of the traditional 10-15 years, Practical VC targets 20-40% discounts to last-round valuations in Series C and D companies with $200M+ in revenue and clear paths to exit. The firm specializes in SaaS and FinTech but has made exceptions for exceptional opportunities like SpaceX, now their biggest winner despite violating their typical investment criteria. Founded by Aman Verjee and Dave McClure, Practical VC evaluates roughly 50 companies at any given time, making 5-10 investments annually. The firm also offers SPVs for deals that don't fit their main fund and covers LATAM opportunities through an operating partner in Argentina. Their approach recognizes that modern venture capital requires new liquidity solutions as companies like SpaceX (23 years private), Airbnb (17 years), and Palantir (20 years) redefine what "patient capital" means.Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode.

The SnoWest Show
#110 - Dave McClure on Arctic Cat's comeback

The SnoWest Show

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 21, 2025 29:52


Arctic Cat ambassador and World Champion hillcimber David McClure joins the show to talk about the Arctic Cat comeback! Justin Stevens co-hosts with Ryan Harris. The SnoWest Show powered by Trails West RPM

Keen On Democracy
Two VCs, No Filter: The Naked Truth about Elon Musk and Sam Altman

Keen On Democracy

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2025 40:51


They certainly are an odd couple. Silicon Valley veterans Dave McClure and Aman Verjee have been friends and business partners for 25 years — first at PayPal, then at 500 Startups, and now at Practical Venture Capital. Yet they have quite different styles, personalities and, above all, politics. What they share, however, is an unvarnished take on the world — especially on the much mythologized Silicon Valley. In this refreshingly unfiltered conversation, they assess tech's two most dominant titans: Sam Altman and Elon Musk. McClure describes Altman as someone he'd never want to face across a poker table — “there's probably three layers of chess going on in his head.” Verjee breaks down the competitive psychology driving Musk as OpenAI's valuation leapfrogs SpaceX. Plus Verjee makes sense of Google's Gemini challenge to ChatGPT domination and McClure leaves us with one of his trademark blunt takes on Trump's crypto conflicts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

This Week in Startups
The End of the ZIRP Era, and why recruiting is SO PAINFUL | E2164

This Week in Startups

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 14, 2025 81:27


Today's show:We're back with another all-star VC roundtable discussion.Joining Jason are Dave McClure of Practical VC, NVNG's Grady Buchanan, and Tomasz Tunguz of Theory VC. Together, they're having a deep insider discussion of the state of venture, secondary markets, running funds of funds, the legacy of Lina Khan, the difficulty of recruiting, and why the pendulum has potentially swung in founders' favor.Timestamps(0:00) INTRO, The origins of Practical VC and how secondary funds work.(05:44) So… how does Dave decide what to BUY?(09:27) Melanie - Companies are staying private longer… Is this good for fund managers?(10:02) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST(11:18) Show Continues…(14:17) We've all heard about unicorns but… what about centaurs?!(16:19) Jacob - Are VC marks… bullsh*t?! How long until your LPs should see DPI? The panel debates.(17:22) Jacob - Is Jason too hard on Lina Khan? Dave says VCs created the problem!(20:07) AWS Activate - AWS Activate helps startups bring their ideas to life. Apply to AWS Activate today to learn more. Visit aws.amazon.com/startups/credits(21:30) Show Continues…(30:01) Public - Take your investing to the next level with Public. Build a multi-asset portfolio and earn 4.1% APY on your cash—with no fees or minimums. Start now at public.com/twist.(31:16) Show Continues…(31:34) When it's time to embed an expert into a struggling startup(34:15) How investing in SO MANY COMPANIES gave Dave a trove of data(40:33) Sometimes VCs have to be the “voice of reality”…(45:53) Are stock buybacks the best use of capital?(49:29) Jacob - The End of the ZIRP Era meets the Dawn of the AI Era(51:04) Why running your business on debt, not equity, requires tough choices(58:23) When you need to “take the medicine” on returns and live to fight another day.(01:11:17) Is Grady actively seeking managers that have shown a demonstrated ability to produce liquidity?(01:13:24) Dave says the pendulum has swung into founders' favor.(01:20:25) Dave teases his new secondary podcast, “Trading Places”!Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisThank you to our partners:(10:02) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST(20:07) AWS Activate - AWS Activate helps startups bring their ideas to life. Apply to AWS Activate today to learn more. Visit aws.amazon.com/startups/credits(30:01) Public - Take your investing to the next level with Public. Build a multi-asset portfolio and earn 4.1% APY on your cash—with no fees or minimums. Start now at public.com/twist.Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.comSubscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916

The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
Secondaries are Essential for the Venture Capital Market

The Sure Shot Entrepreneur

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 8, 2025 39:52


Dave McClure, founder of Practical Venture Capital and co-founder of 500 Startups, dives deep into the growing role of secondaries in venture capital. Dave explains how today's longer startup cycles and liquidity droughts have created opportunities (and confusion) around secondary markets. He breaks down what secondaries actually are, how Practical VC operates, and key trends shaking up the system. With his trademark candor, Dave also shares hard truths for both founders and VCs navigating this next chapter of private markets.In this episode, you'll learn:[03:55] Dave's journey to becoming an investor[06:30] The early evolution of accelerators and why “lots of little bets” took off[09:50] How cloud, open source, and low CAC changed the startup funding game[12:49] Why startup liquidity timelines have doubled—and what that means for founders and LPs[14:56] What secondaries really are (hint: not just one thing)[19:31] Does venture's illiquidity attract the right kind of investors—or just the most patient?[22:06] The discipline of public markets vs. the opacity of private ones[26:37] What Practical VC looks for in a secondary opportunity (and the $50M–$100M revenue rule)[29:14] How Dave screens funds and companies for possible exits[33:37] What's exciting (and worrying) about secondaries, stablecoins, and emerging marketsThe nonprofit organization Dave is passionate about: New StoryAbout Dave McClureDave McClure is the founder of Practical Venture Capital, a firm focused on liquidity through venture secondaries. Previously, he co-founded 500 Startups, one of the world's most active early-stage venture funds. A PayPal alumni and self-described nerd turned investor, Dave has worked across engineering, marketing, and venture roles, investing in hundreds of startups globally. He's known for his honest insights and bold bets on opportunities before they're ‘cool'.About Practical Venture CapitalPractical Venture Capital is a Silicon Valley-based VC secondary firm providing liquidity to GPs, LPs, and founders through targeted secondary investments. Specializing in fund-level and company-level secondaries, Practical VC aims to shorten the venture capital time horizon by backing mature, revenue-generating companies with clear exit paths. The firm focuses on portfolios nearing liquidity and brings a flexible, creative approach to valuation, pricing, and structure.Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode.

This Week in Startups
Dave Mcclure & Jordan Stein on YC, "Spray and Pray", and Games VCs Play | E1923

This Week in Startups

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2024 91:08


This Week in Startups is brought to you by… Mantle. The AI-powered equity management platform designed for modern founders and operators. Get your first 12 months free at https://withmantle.com/TWIST Hubspot for Podcast Networks. Looking to up your marketing game? Check out the podcast: Marketing Against the Grain Hosted by: Hubspot CMO Kipp Bodnar and Zapier CMO Kieran Flannigan They bring you the latest in marketing trends, growth tactics and innovation. Available on all your favorite podcast apps. Curotec. Are you one of those companies that knows you need to be using AI, but you're not even sure where to start? Well then you need Curotec. They are AI experts, and they're offering TWiST listeners an AI Strategy Roadmap tailored to your business for $5000. That's 50% off the normal cost just for telling them we sent you. Check out http://www.curotec.com/twist and get $5000 off! * Todays show: David Weisburd hosts Dave McClure, Jordan Stein, and Jason Calacanis to discuss the evolution of fund spaces. The discuss investing in the YC ecosystem (00:28), the role of secondary funds today (40:26), and the importance of betting on outliers (1:00:49). * Timestamps: (0:00) David Weisburd intros Dave McClure, Jordan Stein, and Jason Calacanis (00:28) Reddit's IPO adds to YC's track record of successful public listings (10:21) Mantle - Get your first 12 months free at https://withmantle.com/TWIST (11:39) Strategy of investing in YC ecosystem and the importance of entry point evaluation (18:40) YC's demo day and opportunities for other accelerators (26:12) Hubspot - Marketing Against the Grain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMNgyVFsk4g https://lnk.to/h3vKHnTW (27:18) YC's demo day and opportunities for other accelerators cont. (32:24) Carta's report on the rise of capital call requests (39:15) Curotec - Check out http://www.curotec.com/twist and get $5000 off (40:26) The role of secondary funds in the current macroeconomic conditions and the potential for more company shutdowns (1:00:49) Betting on outliers and the decision-making process for doubling down (1:14:16) Lightning round: Top 3 investments from each guest (1:25:20) Discussing the upcoming https://www.liquiditypod.com/summit * Check out: https://mercury.com https://www.gropyus.com https://recargapay.com.br https://www.ridemotive.com https://testrigor.com https://www.krepling.com * Follow Dave: X: https://twitter.com/davemcclure LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemcclure Check out: https://practicalvc.com * Follow Jordan: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-stein17 Check out: https://cressetcapital.com * Follow David: X: ⁠https://twitter.com/DWeisburd⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/dweisburd⁠ Check out: ⁠https://10xcapital.com * Follow Jason: X: ⁠https://twitter.com/jason⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jason⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis * Thank you to our partners: (10:21) Mantle - Get your first 12 months free at https://withmantle.com/TWIST (26:12) Hubspot - Marketing Against the Grain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMNgyVFsk4g https://lnk.to/h3vKHnTW (39:15) Curotec - Check out http://www.curotec.com/twist and get $5000 off * Check out the Launch Accelerator: https://launchaccelerator.co * Check out Founder University: https://www.founder.university * Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp * Great 2023 interviews: Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland * Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis * Follow TWiST: Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.founder.university/podcast

The SnoWest Show
Arctic Cat M 858 early release! Dave McClure, Todd Tupper talk about riding the new M 858

The SnoWest Show

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 11, 2024 45:28


Arctic Cat released its 2025 M Alpha One 858 mountain sleds this week and this is our initial reaction pod. We get Todd Tupper of Cat's R&D department and David McClure on to talk about riding the '25 M 858 Alpha Ones. SnoWest test riders Justin Stevens, Broc Genta and Bruce Kerbs join host Ryan Harris in studio.

Whitestone Podcast
Marketing #13: The Pirate Model

Whitestone Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 7, 2023 13:48


Dave McClure, a well-known venture capitalist focused on enterprise startups, developed his “pirate model” for success with service offerings and marketing—he emphasizes Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue. Yes, that's the pirate model—AARRR! But his pirate model can work well for the continuous regeneration of every enterprise. Join Kevin as we unpack the pirate model and its relevance for your workplace enterprise…but also how the early church's dynamic model should direct our steps today. Doesn't God desire ongoing renewal of the vitality and results of the early church we see in the New Testament?  // Download this episode's Application & Action questions and PDF transcript at whitestone.org.

Create Like the Greats
Marketing Frameworks For B2B | AARRR Pirate Metrics + B2B Buyers Journey | Marketing Mental Models

Create Like the Greats

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 2, 2023 21:25


In this episode, Ross dives into the mental frameworks used in marketing, focusing on the Pirate Metrics (AARRR) approach including acquisition, activation, retention, and referral. They also discuss mental models, the awareness and consideration stages of buying, and strategies for closing sales and delighting customers. Detailed Breakdown: Marketing is a complex and ever-evolving field and it can be hard to keep up with the latest strategies. That's why it's important to understand the mental frameworks and strategies that successful marketers use to stay ahead of the game and get maximum results. One such framework is AARRR Pirate Metrics, which was coined by 500 Startups founder Dave McClure. This framework breaks down marketing into five key components – acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue – to help marketers understand how to drive maximum value for their businesses. Acquisition is the strategy and efforts you use to bring customers to your website. Activation involves getting a user to have a positive experience with your offering. Retention is about measuring whether people are coming back, while referral focuses on encouraging satisfied customers to refer new customers. All of these components must work together for the best possible results. For example, SaaS marketers can employ pricing optimization and cross selling to maximize revenue. A mental model is also important when it comes to effective marketing. It is an overarching term for any concept, framework, or worldview that you use to revisit in your mind. This concept of mental models helps marketers to think more holistically and understand the bigger picture. Another important concept in marketing is the awareness-consideration-closing funnel. In the awareness stage, potential customers become aware of their problem, then in the consideration stage, companies need to provide web presence to help prospects evaluate their solutions, before finally helping them make a choice in the closing stage. To help customers in all stages of the funnel, marketers need to produce content such as blog posts, social media posts, white papers, and YouTube videos to provide value. It all comes down to helping customers be successful and delighting them by putting a smile on their face and keeping them retained. By understanding and mastering Pirate Metrics and Mental frameworks, you can develop an effective marketing strategy that will help you get the most value for your business. Resources & Tools: - Dave McClure, 500 Startups Founder - Pricing Optimization - Cross-selling - Call to Action ---

Rise & Grind
Catching Up With Coach Dave McClure, Khloe And Tristan Expecting A Baby and Watch RRR - 7/14/22

Rise & Grind

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 14, 2022 92:21


On today's show: Jessica starts the show by giving her thoughts on the Netflix film RRR. Meghan and Jessica also catch up with Grizzlies Summer League coach Dave McClure, discuss the team's Summer League Championship chances and talk about the latest Khloe and Tristan drama. (start) shenanigans (7:00) RRR review (16:00) Coach McClure interview (35:00) Meghan live from Vegas (57:00)REPORTEDLY: Jazz and Knicks talking about Donovan Mitchell trade (1:03:00) KCP's new contract extension (1:05:00) Big 12 media days (1:13:00) Khloe and Tristan are expecting a baby via surrogate (1:25:00) Ryan Gosling's Barbie movie comment Watch LIVE at 8am, weekdays on YouTube and the Grizzlies App: bit.ly/MemGrizzApp Watch today's full show at: youtube.com/grindcitymedia

The New Wave Entrepreneur
Don't Build It If No One Wants It with Dan Martell

The New Wave Entrepreneur

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 28, 2022 51:10


Dan Martell joins Daniel for an educational conversation about development, both tribe, and product, how to be smart when looking for mentors, and the value of subscription-based services. If you don't already know Dan, he is the Founder of Clarity.fm, a business coach, and a relationship builder, who appreciates proving his worth with every piece of content he puts out.~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Latitud Podcast
#82 - Earning a seat at the table: Bedy Yang, 500 Global

Latitud Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 1, 2022 50:41


Born and raised in a chinese-brazilian family, Bedy Yang has a lengthy track record of consulting for global companies on go-to-market strategies in Brazil. She moved to the US at a time when there weren't many links between Silicon Valley and Latin America, and so she helped build and strengthen them.It started in 2009, when she founded Brazil Innovators, scaling its network from 0 to over 10,000 people. Two years later, she joined 500 Global as a consultant before tackling the role of Managing Partner and the challenges of ecosystem development.In the words of founder Dave McClure, “Bedy Yang is a super-connector who knows Brazil inside and out”.As a global operator, she's invested in the likes of ContaAzul, Descomplica and Viva Real.Bedy and I are catching up to talk about:The role of networking in an entrepreneur's journeyThe recent influx of capital in Latin AmericaAnd how founders can enter negotiations from a position of strengthBuilding something new? Apply for the Latitud Fellowship at apply.latitud.comJoin us in building the future of LatAm tech entrepreneurship at futuro.latitud.com

Man in the Arena
Man in the Arena #002​ - Parte 3

Man in the Arena

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 12, 2021 8:30


O Man in the Arena é um vídeo podcast sobre empreendedorismo e cultura digital apresentado por Leo Kuba e Miguel Cavalcanti. Neste episódio: Dicas de conteúdo na internet: #Blog 500 Hats, de Dave McClure. #Palestra de Steve Case em Stanford. #Favoritos no Twitter do Robert Scoble. Dicas de livros: #Inbound Marketing, de Dharmesh Shah e Brian Halligan. #Rework, de Jason Fried e David H. Hansson. Dicas de produtos web: #Foursquare #Mindmeister.

Man in the Arena
Man in the Arena #002​ - Parte 2

Man in the Arena

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 12, 2021 7:45


O Man in the Arena é um vídeo podcast sobre empreendedorismo e cultura digital apresentado por Leo Kuba e Miguel Cavalcanti. Neste episódio: Dicas de conteúdo na internet: #Blog 500 Hats, de Dave McClure. #Palestra de Steve Case em Stanford. #Favoritos no Twitter do Robert Scoble. Dicas de livros: #Inbound Marketing, de Dharmesh Shah e Brian Halligan. #Rework, de Jason Fried e David H. Hansson. Dicas de produtos web: #Foursquare #Mindmeister

Man in the Arena
Man in the Arena #002​ - Parte 1

Man in the Arena

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 12, 2021 7:05


O Man in the Arena é um vídeo podcast sobre empreendedorismo e cultura digital apresentado por Leo Kuba e Miguel Cavalcanti. Neste episódio: Dicas de conteúdo na internet: #Blog 500 Hats, de Dave McClure. #Palestra de Steve Case em Stanford. #Favoritos no Twitter do Robert Scoble. Dicas de livros: #Inbound Marketing, de Dharmesh Shah e Brian Halligan. #Rework, de Jason Fried e David H. Hansson. Dicas de produtos web: #Foursquare #Mindmeister

Man in the Arena
Man in the Arena #002​ - Parte 1

Man in the Arena

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 12, 2021 7:05


O Man in the Arena é um vídeo podcast sobre empreendedorismo e cultura digital apresentado por Leo Kuba e Miguel Cavalcanti. Neste episódio: Dicas de conteúdo na internet: #Blog 500 Hats, de Dave McClure. #Palestra de Steve Case em Stanford. #Favoritos no Twitter do Robert Scoble. Dicas de livros: #Inbound Marketing, de Dharmesh Shah e Brian Halligan. #Rework, de Jason Fried e David H. Hansson. Dicas de produtos web: #Foursquare #Mindmeister

Man in the Arena
Man in the Arena #002​ - Parte 3

Man in the Arena

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 12, 2021 8:30


O Man in the Arena é um vídeo podcast sobre empreendedorismo e cultura digital apresentado por Leo Kuba e Miguel Cavalcanti. Neste episódio: Dicas de conteúdo na internet: #Blog 500 Hats, de Dave McClure. #Palestra de Steve Case em Stanford. #Favoritos no Twitter do Robert Scoble. Dicas de livros: #Inbound Marketing, de Dharmesh Shah e Brian Halligan. #Rework, de Jason Fried e David H. Hansson. Dicas de produtos web: #Foursquare #Mindmeister.

Man in the Arena
Man in the Arena #002​ - Parte 2

Man in the Arena

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 12, 2021 7:45


O Man in the Arena é um vídeo podcast sobre empreendedorismo e cultura digital apresentado por Leo Kuba e Miguel Cavalcanti. Neste episódio: Dicas de conteúdo na internet: #Blog 500 Hats, de Dave McClure. #Palestra de Steve Case em Stanford. #Favoritos no Twitter do Robert Scoble. Dicas de livros: #Inbound Marketing, de Dharmesh Shah e Brian Halligan. #Rework, de Jason Fried e David H. Hansson. Dicas de produtos web: #Foursquare #Mindmeister

Dead Cat
Dipping into Miami

Dead Cat

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 9, 2021 51:57


Tom Dotan grills me on my trip to Miami during Art Basel. We talk about 500 Global in the shadow of 2017 exposé Dave McClure. We cover a potpourri of topics. I play my best Steven Pinker while Tom harkens back to his days as a digital media reporter. We talk about Max Read's piece “Is web3 b******t?” and discuss the BuzzFeed public listing. (Ben Smith can finally sell his shares!) There's even a brief discussion of the latest episode of Succession **spoilers** toward the end of the episode. Get full access to Newcomer at www.newcomer.co/subscribe

Dead Cat
Dipping into Miami

Dead Cat

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 9, 2021 51:57


Tom Dotan grills me on my trip to Miami during Art Basel. We talk about 500 Global in the shadow of 2017 exposé Dave McClure. We cover a potpourri of topics. I play my best Steven Pinker while Tom harkens back to his days as a digital media reporter. We talk about Max Read’s piece “Is web3 b******t?” and discuss the BuzzFeed public listing. (Ben Smith can finally sell his shares!) There’s even a brief discussion of the latest episode of Succession **spoilers** toward the end of the episode. Get full access to Newcomer at www.newcomer.co/subscribe

Inside Outside
Ep. 274 - Todd Embley, Senior Startup Advocate for Agora on Startup Tech, Trends & Ecosystems

Inside Outside

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 23, 2021 24:48


On this week's episode of Inside Outside Innovation, we sit down with Todd Embley, Senior Startup Advocate for Agora. Todd and I talk about the new technologies and trends from no-code tools to embedded audio and video platforms, that affect how we see, hear, and interact with each other. We also explore how companies are tapping into startups and startup ecosystems to enable founders to build and impact the world more effectively. Let's get started. Inside Outside Innovation as the podcast to help new innovators navigate what's next. I'm your host Brian Ardinger, founder of InsideOutside.IO. Each week. We'll give you a front row seat into what it takes to learn, grow, and thrive in today's world of accelerating change and uncertainty. Join us as we explore, engage, and experiment with the best and the brightest innovators, entrepreneurs, and pioneering businesses. It's time to get started. Interview Transcript with Todd Embley, Senior Startup Advocate for AgoraBrian Ardinger: Welcome to another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. I'm your host, Brian Ardinger, and as always, we have another amazing guest. Today, we have Todd Embley. He is a Senior Startup Advocate for Agora and a formerly with China Accelerator. So welcome to the show, Todd, Todd Embley: Thank you, Brian. It's good to be here. Brian Ardinger: I'm excited to have you because we've met a while back early in my startup days when I was running NMotion. You were in China. And we met at some global accelerator network conference. I think it was in San Diego, perhaps. So, you spent a lot of time in Asia, as I did. And recently moved back to the states, working for a interesting company called Agora. We had a chance to run into each other again in Lincoln. Todd Embley: Yeah. Thanks very much. I actually did come back from China and moved to the U.S. but now I'm back in Canada. I am Canadian and I'm living in Western Canada. Brian Ardinger: I wanted to start the conversation with the most recent company that you're with is a company called Agora. It's an interesting company for a couple different reasons. And it's a real-time engagement platform that a lot of popular companies are using to build on top of like Run the World, which is something that we've used for our IO Conferences and that. And some of our IO Live events. I think you guys provide like the SDKs and the building blocks to enable these types of startups to build off of. So, I I'd love to get your take, not on just Agora, but you've got an interesting role there as a Startup Advocate. So, what is a Startup Advocate? Todd Embley: It's a great role, for those of us who aren't necessarily adept at selling. And we fall under marketing. And the role is really, if I were to compartmentalize everything that we're about and our ethos and thesis. Is go out into startup land and be as helpful as possible. Try to integrate. You know, we sponsor. I run workshops. I meet with lots and lots of entrepreneurs all the time, and we're just out there trying to be as helpful as possible. And the great thing that the company and the founders and senior leadership have all gotten behind is just be out and be as helpful as possible. And wear the t-shirt while you're doing it. That's almost the be all and end of it. And for those that are really interested in what Agora is and what Agora does, then we can get into that. But essentially, we're not trying to put it in front of everybody and not trying to blast everybody with, with Agora specifically. The team is comprised of people who have been entrepreneurs, been in startups, been in VC, run accelerators. And who have just a lot of empathy for startups and that's kind of where it begins and ends. Brian Ardinger: We see a couple of different companies use this approach of startup advocate type of program to help build their business. Walk me through like, what are the benefits and the reasons why a corporation would want to put together some type of program around this.Todd Embley: You know, I think AWS and what they've been doing for as long as they've been doing it are kind of the benchmark. And they were, I would say the pioneers, at least the most famous pioneers of running programs like this. Our senior leadership had an opportunity in China to talk to the heads of AWS Activate in China.And they divulged some interesting statistics, which I think were the precipice of Agora wanting to build their own startup team as well. And that was that after 15 years of them having a program, they will now attribute up to 65% of AWS revenues today to the activities, you know, over the last 15 years, of their startup program.And what we're trying to do is invest in our future huge customers. Knowing that the world's next billionaire companies, trillion-dollar companies. The unicorns of the future are still just startups today. And if we want to align ourselves correctly with what it takes to build a startup and how hard it is, let's maybe try to get out of their way at the early stages while they're trying to cross the early chasms of, you know, and the difficulties of what it takes. So, from a revenue perspective or from a cost perspective, let's give our stuff for free. You know, until you, their revenue. You can't get blood from a stone. So, while they're still searching for product market fit and revenue, let's let them use our software for free until such time as they are then finding product market fit and then able to start generating revenue. And only at that time, should we then start to talk to them about actually paying for the service? Brian Ardinger: That makes sense. And obviously it seems to be working. I think I read on your website, you've got over 50 billion minutes of engagement on the platform. Probably going up as we speak. I don't know if you can speak to any specific use cases or specifically what you do when it comes to helping these companies get up and off the ground. Todd Embley: Sure. As you alluded to, there are some famous companies that have been using us, especially in the real-time audio space. There are a few NDAs in place. So, you could mention who those companies are. And by all means it's pretty widely known. I necessarily can't speak directly to who some of those more famous ones are. But the nuts and bolts of the program essentially boils down to free minutes. So, my Director, Tony Blank. He and another friend of ours, Paul Ford, used to do this at SendGrid. And that's where they were a big supporter of the Global Accelerator Network where you and I met in the beginning and then the Twilio acquisition of SendGrid. So, he was there. And they were doing a great job as well. And leading on some of the data from their experience there, or Tony's experience there, and then understanding our business and the data that we had over the years that Agora has been thriving. We positioned the amount of minutes at 1 million, we figured 1 million minutes of Agora should be enough for most companies to achieve product market fit and revenue.If you haven't achieved product market fit and revenue, after using a million minutes of Agora, you may have some underlying other issues that are getting in the way of that. But we really feel that upwards of 80%, even 90% of companies who do achieve and use up the million free minutes, should be at a position of having raised money and are revenue positive.At which time we feel comfortable to say, okay, though, now we do have to, for our business purposes, need to, to work on something and we'll hand them over to sales in a gentle way and work on getting them some discounts and start forecasting future usage and things like that. But those are the nuts and bolts.In our world of real-time video, real-time audio, just the real-time engagement aspect of it. There are certain verticals that are really taking off. I think health is obviously a big one where you have doctors and patients or therapists and their clients. We're seeing a lot in fitness, so for coaches training. Doing big group classes. Education is probably our biggest. I think that's a pretty obvious use case of doing real time lessons with teachers and things. But we're also seeing a lot of activity in the area of gaming where people want talk to each other. They want to be on video with each other while playing games together. Live performances and experiences around online virtual concerts or comedy shows or things like that as well. There's a lot of added context that you can get from engaging in real time, over video. That you couldn't get at an actual conference.You know, there are solutions coming around blending those where you might be at the concert, but you'll also have on your phone different camera angles that are available to a viewer. And you can get other contextual information that is happening plus chats with other people at the concert or something like that.And then, you know, a lot of multi-verse. A lot of VR stuff. I mean, I had a conversation with a startup out of New Zealand who was working in the overcoming therapy space, where if you had a phobia of dogs, you know, a psychologist would work with their client, and they would go to a kennel and slowly start to integrate and learn how to overcome. But now we can do that in a VR environment, but overlay a lot of very interesting artificial intelligence, facial recognition. Stuff like that to really be able to measure the things that are almost imperceptible to the human eye, to understand like the dilation of their pupils when faced with a small dog versus a big dog or different breeds or something, just giving a lot more contextual information to help a psychologist really work with their client to overcome a phobia. So, it's fascinating to work with the startups because they are thinking of use cases that we even within Agora can't think of. The Ewing Marion Kauffman FoundationSponsor Voice: The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private, nonpartisan foundation based in Kansas City, Missouri, that seeks to build inclusive prosperity through a prepared workforce and entrepreneur-focused economic development. The Foundation uses its $3 billion in assets to change conditions, address root causes, and break down systemic barriers so that all people – regardless of race, gender, or geography – have the opportunity to achieve economic stability, mobility, and prosperity. For more  information, visit www.kauffman.org and connect with us at www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn. Brian Ardinger: Well, and that's an interesting thing because the platform itself is really robust. You can do video calls and voice calls and interactive live streaming and real-time messaging and white boarding. And like you said, the toolkits are there. And I think this fits into one of those trends that we've been talking about, where it's never been easier for a startup founder to find the tools they need. They don't necessarily have to build everything from scratch nowadays. They can find partners and no code, low code tools and things like that to get up and going and testing the marketplace a lot easier than ever before. And get to those use case scenarios that a platform tool provider may not have thought of originally. I'm curious to get your take on some of this accessibility to tools that founders didn't have maybe, you know, 10 years ago when we started in this business. Todd Embley: Yeah, it's amazing. I think back to, I used to be with SOSV was the fund, and we were doing kind of an internal conference for all of our portfolio, all of our mentor network. Everybody that had ever been involved with us, including investors in Agora or LPs. And we had a guy named Dave McClure come and speak. And somebody had asked him is your eight-year-old daughter learning how to code. And he said, let me rephrase that. I think what you're asking me is do I think that it is important for very young people to learn how to code and essentially that's what you're looking for. And he said, you know, coding is like learning any other language, you know, in the development of the brain and how that enables young people to really grow. But it is in his opinion, he said it is just kind of a commodity. He said coding is probably going to become a commodity. And we've seen that in the low-code no-code explosion.And then he thought, you know, design would probably not be that far behind. I mean, there probably will be a day in the future where our phones will know everything they need to know about us, where you won't have to necessarily code or design the UI UX CX, of how an app works and feels. Because it can just deploy to our phone and our phone can tell the app how to develop itself as it lands on our home screen, in the way that we prefer it to be from colors to where the settings are or where our profile lives.And we can navigate that so intuitively. It has been absolutely amazing. And I think, you know, as we go, we've launched our app builder where pretty much anybody, even without any coding experience can go on and within 20 minutes create a video conferencing tool that they can use for their family reunion. You know, that is super easy. So yeah, it's been amazing. Brian Ardinger: It is kind of crazy to think what are the uses. I'd imagine obviously COVID has changed the dynamic landscape for you guys, especially. And so maybe let's talk a little bit about that. Some of the trends you're seeing with the move to more remote and more virtual environments. Todd Embley: Anybody who just watches the stock price of Zoom over the last couple of years would understand exactly where this industry has gone, but then factors like the quote unquote Zoom fatigue. And now we're seeing people that want to have more control over the layout and the design and the backgrounds and the information and the chats and emojis and music and all these other things that you can build into it. Because you know, now for instance, all our conferences went virtual, right? So we are now having to figure out how did you run a web summit or you know, like an East Meets West, that Blue Start-ups does in Hawaii or something. How do we now do this online and create a really great experience where everybody can still try to achieve those same outcomes for why they attended in the first place. It's been a pretty amazing growth that has really kind of pushed the boundaries.The work from home, I think has been the biggest thing where everybody's now at home. So, there's working with colleagues. There is collection of data. There is monitoring output and outcomes. And, you know, as a department or as a salesperson or marketing has changed. How do we do now market to people who aren't leaving their homes anymore that has now all changed.It's been such a game changer just in the future of work. I wouldn't say it necessarily changed course, but COVID has absolutely accelerated what we were already starting to think it would be. You know, it's done some damage to the world of coworking spaces, right. Or in-person accelerators or incubators. It's changed how we, even as a startup team go out and find partners and find startups to introduce them to Agora. So, it's had a tremendous impact. Brian Ardinger: You spent a lot of time ecosystem building for lack of a better term. You know, you go to different communities and see what the landscape is in the startup world. And then again, try to help founders navigate that. So, what are you seeing when you travel around to different startup communities and that. What's maybe different than it was five or six years ago? Todd Embley: There's a lot of factors. Entrepreneurship and startup land, as we know it, just even in the last 20 years, let's say since the .com boom and bust. And then, you know, Paul Graham kind of the Godfather of the accelerator starts Y Combinator in 2005. And so, the way investors started investing, and then there was, you know, a lot of information and then Crunchbase and others started coming around. And then, then we had 10 years of data from Crunchbase, somewhere around 2013. That we're now measuring how well people were investing, how well-performing that whole venture financial class was doing.And we've seen things where investors are now looking more at timing of solutions versus not just team and problem, but they had so many investments that were either too early, too late. And they started to recognize that. A lot of funds are starting to look internally and seeing, trying to reinvest inside the value that they've created to capture more of the food on the table versus being so outwardly focused. For our jobs, even in doing ecosystem development, how to startups find us versus how do we find them? If there's no meetups. If we're not able to do in-person startup weekends, then how are we able to find them, to attract them, to support them and to help them. How are investors doing their due diligence? You know, things like DocSend. Right.Having that digital data room with a lot of analytics built into it. So that founders can now not only see who's entering and who's looking at their due diligence documents at, but where in the deck are they spending time? On what slides, what is important? Where are they stopping? Where are they looking at? There's a lot of data and information that they can measure from that as well. I'm not exactly sure if that answers the question, but it is so drastically different. And now we're going back into, you know, web summit is in-person. I'm going to be going to that next week after we record this. That is going to be a different experience as well. And then there's the hybrids that are kind of doing both. It's changed a lot. Brian Ardinger: It is definitely interesting. You know, it's always been hard to find startup founders. A lot of times they're heads down doing their thing. You know, over the last five or six years pre COVID, you started to have a different environment where things like coworking spaces and events like Startup Weekend and that, started to bring some of those folks out and started to get some energy. And then COVID kind of slap that in the face to a certain extent. But now what I'm seeing at least is more collaboration across different communities. So even though I'm based in Lincoln, Nebraska, the network and our reach to different communities for the startups in our backyard, has increased and been beneficial from the standpoint of they're no longer having to be in the middle of flyover country. They can access folks that wouldn't necessarily in the past look outside of their own Sandhill Road area. So, I guess there's pros and cons to this new environment, but I was curious to get your take on that as well. Todd Embley: Constraints, breed Innovation. And COVID has drastically brought a whole new set of constraints just by not being able to meet in person as much. So, I think it's the development and the investment in developing a different skill set. You know, you take one sense away, the other senses improve. And so, we've had to become better at being able to build relationships. And we have video. And we have voice. But suddenly we're tuning in to the video and tuning into the voice. We may not have the same social cues and we may not have the same physical cues to be picking up on things. We used to train entrepreneurs on how to pitch in person. You were on a stage facing an audience. You were standing in front of an investor at a meetup. Here's how you do it. Here's how you talk. Here's how you hold yourself. Be careful of your hands. Don't shift your feet around. You know, there is all these, you know, all this kind of training, which has had to change. Which has had to develop. And now we're reaching out, we're developing partnerships and I think I've seen a lot of ecosystems lean in on having silos or verticals that they're starting to own to be seen as a place.And accelerators are now going virtual, where they're pulling from anywhere. Right. We have a focus. We're vertically focused. And so even if you're in Brazil or you're in Russia or wherever, this is the accelerator that you want to join because the world has just been absolutely flattened. And now this is the best place. This is the best accelerator, and you don't have to fly in and live here. Right? So now you've seen costs of living. People are moving out of the main centers. It's just, it's been a tremendous change. Brian Ardinger: You've spent your life helping founders. And I'd love to get your input on for our founders that are listening to this show. Some of the biggest obstacles or barriers or things that you've seen or can help them overcome. Are there particular tips or tricks that founders should be paying attention to nowadays?Todd Embley: I still think it all starts with the problem. And I still find myself having to talk about deep diving into the problem discussion. And there has been a penchant for the snapshot. And of the landscape as it is today. But I think what we're starting to understand. And what I'm seeing from a lot of questions that come from investors, is it's not as much about what. It's about why. And when you're pitching or talking about what you're doing, you have to start layering in the why.This is our go to market strategy. Great. Doesn't really matter, but why did you choose that? They're being measured on the way they think. The way they process. The way they built. What data did you take in. Which did you keep? And which did you throw away and why? And then what decision and strategy did you make off of that data?And why did you decide to strategize that? Why are you deciding to build this next? Why is this the next iteration of what you're doing, this problem that you're trying to solve? Anybody can Google and get a lot of data on a problem that exists today. But do you have a deep understanding of how we got here? You know, we have this Canadian kind of saying of the Wayne Gretzky, don't go where the puck is, go, where the puck is going to be.And as investors, we're always trying to find the entrepreneurs who are good at figuring out where the puck is going to be. But the only way that they can figure that out, isn't understanding just where the puck is, but how the puck got to where it is. Because only then do we understand the speed and the trajectory and are able to extrapolate off of that to know where it's going with some reasonable degree of accuracy. But we'll never get it right. But that I think is always be factoring in your why. Nobody is going to be blown away by your what because you're still early stage. Unless you have a hundred thousand downloads or a million MRR, you know, it's just not that impressive. Because the only thing that matters is what people use and pay for.So, knowing that. Now, we're just trying to measure size you up as a founder. So lean in on all your why of everything that you're talking about so that they can understand how you develop, how you price, how you see the world. Be unique, be different. For More InformationBrian Ardinger: Solid advice. Well, Todd, I want to thank you for coming on Inside Outside Innovation and sharing your insights and your experiences from the many years of being in the trenches there. I want to encourage people to check out Agora and that. If people want to find out more about yourself or about the startup program at Agora, what's the best way to do that? Todd Embley: Yeah. I mean, if they want to connect with me, LinkedIn is great. Just Todd Embley. I will generally show up. That's a great way to do it. And I'd love to connect. And I love to meet with everybody. And then agora.io/startups is where the entrance to the startup program lives. But Agora.io is where most of the information about Agora lives. And we're happy to talk to anybody, especially partners. Anybody doing events. Anything out there. We'd love to be a part of it. We'd love to sponsor. And try to add value. Brian Ardinger: Well Todd, thanks again for coming on the show. It's great to see you again and look forward to continuing the conversation in the years to come. Todd Embley: Thanks, Brian. It's been great.Brian Ardinger: That's it for another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. If you want to learn more about our team, our content, our services, check out InsideOutside.io or follow us on Twitter @theIOpodcast or @Ardinger. Until next time, go out and innovate.FREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER & TOOLSGet the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HEREYou can also search every Inside Outside Innovation Podcast by Topic and Company.  For more innovations resources, check out IO's Innovation Article Database, Innovation Tools Database, Innovation Book Database, and Innovation Video Database.  

Fully Vested
I'm not an expert, but HUGE

Fully Vested

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 4, 2021 48:48


GeneralSubscribe to Fully Vested at FullyVested.co or through your podcast app of choice.Some definitions"Startups" are hard to define, but many different definitions point toward similar themes:"A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model." – First sentence of the Wikipedia page for 'Startup company,' at least at the time of recording"A startup is a newly established company whose corporate form allows a clear distinction between different shareholders and the ability to receive outside financing while the goal is super rapid growth and market dominance by offering an innovative product or service." – Marius Schober, on his blog"A startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model." – Steve Blank"Properly defined, a startup is the largest group of people you can convince of a plan to build a different future. A new company's most important strength is new thinking: even more important than nimbleness, small size affords space to think." – Peter Thiel, in his book Zero To One"A startup is a company designed to grow fast." – Paul Graham, founder of Viaweb and Y Combinator, in September 2012"A startup is a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty." – Eric Reis in his book, The Lean Startup"A startup is a venture that is initiated by its founders around an idea or a problem with a potential for significant business opportunity and impact." – Startup Commons"A 'startup' is a company that is confused about: 1. What its product is, 2. Who its customers are, [and] 3. How to make money. As soon as it figures out all 3 things, it ceases being a startup and becomes a real business. Except most times, that doesn't happen." – Dave McClure, founder of 500 Startups and Practical VC, on Quora in 2013Some differentiators between startups and small businessesIt just so happens that one of your Fully Vested co-hosts has done some writing about this. From the Startup Fundamentals cluster on Golden...Startups tend to share several characteristics which serve to distinguish them from small businesses:Innovation. Startup companies are typically built around a new idea, method, or product. While the products and services a startup may offer are enabled by technology, not all startups are rooted in unique, defensible intellectual property. They may offer a new type of business or service model (ex. app-based ride-hailing services vs. the traditional taxi industry) or a unique design or interaction model which sets them apart from established competitors.Risk. Startup companies often operate at the edge of a technical field or market for their product or service. Given their small size, limited resources, and often unproven demand for their commercial offerings, startup companies experience high rates of business failure. However, with high risk can come high reward.Scale. Almost by definition, startup companies start small. At launch, they may serve a small geographic area or a specific customer segment, sometimes referred to as a "beachhead market." However, from a management and economic standpoint, startups are designed to scale up beyond their initial markets and serve many, many customers. For startups, economic viability is often predicated on very large scale.Speed. Small team sizes and relatively flat organizational structures let startup teams make decisions and move quickly to seize upon a market opportunity. Limited available resources (see runway) and competitive pressure makes speed a necessity.Some resourcesWhat The Hell Is A Startup Anyway? (Alex Wilhelm for TechCrunch in December 2014)What's the Difference Between a Small Business Venture and a Startup?(Candice Landau, for Bplans.com)About The Co-HostsJason D. Rowley is a researcher and writer at Golden.com. He volunteers with startup outreach for the open-source community and sends occasional newsletters from Rowley.Report.Graham C. Peck is a Venture Partner with Cultivation Capital and additionally helps companies build technology development teams in partnership with Brightgrove and other technology development organizations.

Man in the Arena (Audio)
Man in the Arena #002​ - Parte 2

Man in the Arena (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 11, 2021 7:45


O Man in the Arena é um vídeo podcast sobre empreendedorismo e cultura digital apresentado por Leo Kuba e Miguel Cavalcanti. Neste episódio: Dicas de conteúdo na internet: #Blog 500 Hats, de Dave McClure. #Palestra de Steve Case em Stanford. #Favoritos no Twitter do Robert Scoble. Dicas de livros: #Inbound Marketing, de Dharmesh Shah e Brian Halligan. #Rework, de Jason Fried e David H. Hansson. Dicas de produtos web: #Foursquare #Mindmeister

Man in the Arena (Audio)
Man in the Arena #002​ - Parte 3

Man in the Arena (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 11, 2021 8:30


O Man in the Arena é um vídeo podcast sobre empreendedorismo e cultura digital apresentado por Leo Kuba e Miguel Cavalcanti. Neste episódio:   Dicas de conteúdo na internet: #Blog 500 Hats, de Dave McClure.  #Palestra de Steve Case em Stanford.  #Favoritos no Twitter do Robert Scoble.   Dicas de livros:  #Inbound Marketing, de Dharmesh Shah e Brian Halligan. #Rework, de Jason Fried e David H. Hansson. Dicas de produtos web: #Foursquare #Mindmeister.

Man in the Arena (Audio)
Man in the Arena #002​ - Parte 1

Man in the Arena (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 11, 2021 7:05


 O Man in the Arena é um vídeo podcast sobre empreendedorismo e cultura digital apresentado por Leo Kuba e Miguel Cavalcanti. Neste episódio: Dicas de conteúdo na internet: #Blog 500 Hats, de Dave McClure.  #Palestra de Steve Case em Stanford. #Favoritos no Twitter do Robert Scoble. Dicas de livros: #Inbound Marketing, de Dharmesh Shah e Brian Halligan. #Rework, de Jason Fried e David H. Hansson. Dicas de produtos web: #Foursquare #Mindmeister

Better Done Than Perfect
Value Paths & Fireballs with Samuel Hulick

Better Done Than Perfect

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 28, 2020 39:21


When it comes to user onboarding, one of the first names that pop to mind is Samuel Hulick, an accomplished UX consultant, founder of User Onboard, and author of The Elements of User Onboarding. In this episode, you'll learn Samuel's take on exactly that — the “ideal” user onboarding experience, as well as his Mario-fireball concept, Value Paths, success metrics, Jobs to Be Done, segmentation, and his invaluable advice for SaaS founders.Visit our website for the detailed episode recap with key learnings.Show notesUseronboard.com — Samuel's user onboarding resource websiteThe Elements of User Onboarding — Samuel's bookWe Are No Strangers — Samuel's article, which refers to his Mario-fireball conceptValue Paths — Samuel's new onboarding approachUI Breakfast Podcast. Episode 181: Jobs to Be Done with Jim KalbachThe Jobs To Be Done Playbook — Jim Kalbach's popular bookWhy We Do What We Do — a book by Edward L. DeciStartup Metrics for Pirates: AARRR! — a talk by Dave McClure on his Pirate Metrics frameworkFollow Samuel on TwitterIf you found the episode useful, please spread the word on Twitter mentioning @userlist, or leave us a review on iTunes.SponsorThis show is brought to you by Userlist — the best way for SaaS founders to send onboarding emails, segment your users based on events, and see where your customers get stuck in the product. Start your free trial today at userlist.com.

Effective Family Office Podcast
Meet the Most Active Angel Investor EVER

Effective Family Office Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 4, 2020 54:52


In this episode of the Effective Family Office Podcast, host Angelo Robles speaks with Dave McClure, Founder, and CEO of Practical Venture Capital and Founder of 500 Startups. He shares why he actively gives back as an angel investor.

The Rick Kettner Podcast
#013: The 5 BEST MARKETING METRICS For Business Or Startup Growth

The Rick Kettner Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 22, 2020 13:45


Whether you're starting a new business or just looking to track the overall health and growth of an established brand, it's important to understand the business metrics that are most important for growth. In this video, we'll cover the top 5 best marketing metrics for tracking business growth.These metrics are often referred to as pirate metrics, because of the AARRR acronym. They were established by Dave McClure and stand for: acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue.They can be used as a basic marketing funnel, but are best used to measure the overall health and growth of your business over time. Be sure to identify and measure these marketing metrics within your own business.Want to leave a COMMENT or watch the VIDEO edition?► https://youtu.be/X5nfM-L2nKoFollow Rick Kettner for episode updates, book recommendations, and more.► https://www.twitter.com/rickkettner► https://www.instagram.com/rickkettner/► https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickkettner/► https://www.youtube.com/rickkettnerContent by Rick KettnerProduced by Kyle Trienke

Federal Drive with Tom Temin
What nearly 350 federal executives had to say about spending on IT modernization

Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Play Episode Listen Later May 13, 2020 10:14


It's easier to spend money on information technology modernization than it is to get lasting results. Accenture Federal Services interviewed some 350 federal executives for insight into how to modernize with impact. For details, the managing director for Accenture's CIO advisory, Dave McClure, and the principal director, Malcolm Jackson, spoke to Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

technology executives spending federal modernization dave mcclure it modernization federal drive tom temin
Cutting Through the Noise
Episode 4: Destination Marketing Series Part II: The Acquisition Stage

Cutting Through the Noise

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 3, 2020 20:47


Acquisition, activation, retention, referral and revenue. This the the framework that makes up any robust digital marketing campaign. Coined originally by Dave McClure of 500 Startups, the framework fits tourism and economic development marketing quite nicely. www.pintlergroup.com www.geofli.com

Cutting Through The Noise
Episode 4: Destination Marketing Series Part II: The Acquisition Stage

Cutting Through The Noise

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 3, 2020 20:47


Acquisition, activation, retention, referral and revenue. This the the framework that makes up any robust digital marketing campaign. Coined originally by Dave McClure of 500 Startups, the framework fits tourism and economic development marketing quite nicely. www.pintlergroup.com www.geofli.com

14 Minutes of SaaS - founder stories on business, tech and life
E78 – Sean Percival, CMO at Whereby, Ex 500 Startups. 3 of 5. Loving Life & Janteloven in Oslo

14 Minutes of SaaS - founder stories on business, tech and life

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 6, 2019 14:06


Episode 78 of 14 Minutes of SaaS is the third part of a 5-episode mini-series. Stephen Cummins chats with Sean Percival, CMO at Whereby, formerly of 500 Startups and Myspace. "Dave McClure is slight controversial in some cases, but still a really good guy. Dave invested in Wittlebee ... And he said to me ‘I'm going to invest 50K dollars ... I don't think this is gonna work out though. And if it doesn't work out and you need a job, I want you to contact me first, that's all I ask.'"

14 Minutes of SaaS - founder stories on business, tech and life
E78 – Sean Percival, CMO at Whereby, Ex 500 Startups. 3 of 5. Loving Life & Janteloven in Oslo

14 Minutes of SaaS - founder stories on business, tech and life

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 6, 2019 14:06


Episode 78 of 14 Minutes of SaaS is the third part of a 5-episode mini-series. Stephen Cummins chats with Sean Percival, CMO at Whereby, formerly of 500 Startups and Myspace. "Dave McClure is slight controversial in some cases, but still a really good guy. Dave invested in Wittlebee ... And he said to me ‘I'm going to invest 50K dollars ... I don't think this is gonna work out though. And if it doesn't work out and you need a job, I want you to contact me first, that's all I ask.’"

DijitalHayatTV
Paypal Mafyası | Bölüm59

DijitalHayatTV

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 26, 2019 52:52


Paypal Mafyası | #59 - 26.11.2019 Bilal Eren ve Cem Sünbül ile dijitalleşmenin hayatımıza etkilerini her salı 22.00'da bir başka konuyla ele alan DijitalHayatTV YouTube/Facebook/Periscope yayınımızda bugün; - Paypal Mafyası Nedir? - Paypal'ı Kuranlar Kimler? Paypal'ın Hikayesi Ne? - Paypal Mafyası İsmi Nereden Geliyor? - Paypal'ı Kuran 14 Kişi Kim? - Paypal Sonrası Neler Yaptılar? - Dünyayı Değiştiren Girişimcilerin Hayat Hikayeleri? - Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, Max Levchin, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim, Dave McClure, David O. Sacks, Premal Shah, Russel Simmons, Jeremy Stoppelman, Andrew McCormack, Luke Nosek, Ken Howery, Keith Rabois, Roelof Botha ve Paypal Mafyası Başlıklarını konuştuk. Haftaya salı saat 22.00'da görüşmek üzere. Hem canlı hem de geçmiş yayınlarımız için tıklayın; YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dijitalhayattv Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dijitalhayattv Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/dijitalhayattv Web: https://www.dijitalhayat.tv

elon musk paypal peter thiel sacks hem giri reid hoffman kuran max levchin keith rabois haftaya dave mcclure russel simmons steve chen roelof botha jeremy stoppelman andrew mccormack premal shah david o sacks
8 Minute Mastermind
Start-ups for beginners

8 Minute Mastermind

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 21, 2019 7:03


Holly is grateful for accepting a new position that she feels great about, that allowed her to drop two jobs she was only so-so about. She works for a start-up.   00:55 Challenge: What are some good resources for someone who doesn't have experience with start-ups? How can I find people who've been in this position before, to be able to chat with them?  01:30 Question: What's your role in the company? 01:31 Operations and accounting. I don't know where to look for a mentor in a similar company - small.  01:49 Question: Is the start-up funded already? 01:49 Yes. 01:55 Question: Can they pay salaries?  01:55 No, not yet.  02:03 Question: So people are just working for equity right now? 02:03 No, just working part time.  02:10 Question: What is the biggest challenge for the start-up itself right now? Marketing? Sales? Delivery? Mindset? 02:21 Sales, spreading the word.  02:27 Question: So marketing and sales, start-up. Will the new people be working on commission?  02:36 No, we're not looking to hire anyone.  02:43 Suggestion: So for resources, Y-Combinator, 500 Start-Ups, Dave McClure. Erik Reese, Lean Start-Up, is a great book.  02:52 Question: So your role is operations, you might be wearing other hats, but is that what you're being paid for mainly?  03:06 We're organizing that right now. For now it's mostly me getting things ready to be scaled.  03:29 Suggestion: Focus on building the systems they need to scale. So focus on other companies that have scaled.  03:58 Suggestion: Talk to Matt Richie. Matt is in our group, he worked with Jay Brown. He helps grow companies, and he's starting a Mastermind around it.  04:24 Suggestion: The book Extreme Ownership was recommended to me.  04:41 Suggestion: Book: Traction. Great start-up, operational-based. 05:15 Question: Let's spread the word. What is the word that you're spreading? What is your target avatar right now? What are you leading them to? What's the offer? 05:26 It's CBD creme; face products, sleep spray, higher level cosmetics. It's called Culture For Good.  05:45 Suggestion: First rule of marketing, always be marketing. 05:51 Suggestion: Talk with Cece Bodela? She markets direct sales CBD for a living.  06:20 Suggestion: Chris from Alexinol?    Three Key Points: Books for start-ups: Extreme Ownership and Traction Network; leverage the groups you’re in. Don’t be tempted to put on too many hats; define your role early.

The Frye Show
#123: Santiago Zavala – Partner 500 Startups – El origen de 500 Startups LATAM

The Frye Show

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 29, 2019 113:24


“No se detengan a pedir permiso, ni a esperar a que se alineen los astros, sino que empiecen a hacerlo.” – Santiago Zavala Santiago Zavala es un iceberg. Sí, él es la imagen cliché de Instagram. En la foto, tanto la parte superior como la inferior del iceberg son visibles. Sin embargo, el hielo que perfora el agua es minúsculo en comparación con la magnitud de lo que se esconde debajo. Este podcast es lo mismo, solo que un vistazo a la mente de alguien que ha dedicado años a construir y mejorar el mundo de los emprendedores en LATAM. Desde la prepa cuando lanzó – su primer emprendimiento – un foro llamado culter.com.mx, donde lograron tener miles de usuarios, cientos de miles de mensajes y millones de visitas hasta ahora, mas de 17 años después, dirigiendo las actividades de 500 Startups en América Latina de habla hispana. A finales del 2010 y durante el 2011, viendo el ecosistema mexicano creciendo en actividad y forma; pero sabiendo que necesitaba acceso a capital y buenas prácticas, frustrados de que no existiera nada que resolviera estos temas, decidieron comenzar Mexican.vc. Meses después, buscando su siguiente paso, logramos convencer a 500 Startups de explorar la posibilidad de hacer algo mas grande y desde entonces, han generado dos fondos nuevos para América Latina, invertido en mas de 100 empresas y generado 8 programas de aceleración. 500 Startups de Dave McClure casi siempre han estado interesadas en dominar el mundo. Ahora está dando un paso más cerca, al adquirir el acelerador de startups de América Latina Mexican.VC. Al hacerlo, 500 Startups obtendrán una posición aún más fuerte en el mercado de Latam, ya que trae a los socios de Mexican.VC César Salazar y Santiago Zavala al equipo, convirtiéndolos en sus socios de riesgo en México. La misión de 500 es descubrir y respaldar a los emprendedores más talentosos del mundo, ayudarlos a crear compañías exitosas a escala y construir ecosistemas globales prósperos. En este podcast, discutimos la historia de 500 Startups en México, el poder de un unicornio, por qué un emprendedor hace lo que hace, el mundo de la inversión, cambios radicales en LATAM, la salud y mucho más. Creía que estaba usando mi podcast para cazar conocimiento. Ahora me doy cuenta de que estoy persiguiendo mi falta de conocimiento. Estoy buscando lagunas en mi mente que revelen la inferioridad de lo que una vez creí que era correcto.  Es muy fácil confirmar lo que ya crees. Es mucho más difícil y gratificante verificar que te equivocaste. Este podcast con Santiago Zavala me recuerda una de mis citas favoritas de Sócrates, “Solo sé, que nada sé”.   ***Si te gusta el podcast, ¿podrías considerar dejar una breve reseña en Apple Podcasts | iTunes? Es rápido, no duele y hace una gran diferencia para convencer a los futuros invitados y promocionar el podcast.Enlaces importantes:The Frye Show.com con más información, libros, artículos y más...Boletín creativo - 747The Corvus Show - CorvusThe Frye Show LIVE - LIVEThe Frye Show - MembresíaLinkedIn - robbiejfryeTwitter - robbiejfryeInstagram - robbiejfryeFacebook - robbiejfrye★ Support this podcast ★

Federal Drive with Tom Temin
Modernizing IT will take a lot of practical strategies

Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 8, 2019 10:39


Modernizing information technology takes a lot of vision, even courage. But it also takes a lot of practical strategies to get rid of dated, expensive data centers, become good at development, and offer better service to your constituencies. Managing director for Accenture's CIO advisory, Dave McClure, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss strategies.

Federal Drive with Tom Temin
In 2019, state of federal IT still has ways to go

Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 11, 2019 10:35


Following a couple of dizzy years of policy and legislation, just what is the state of federal information technology going into calendar 2019? According to one new in-depth look, it's better but not great. Agile development, cloud computing and just basic impact of IT still have a long way to go. Dave McClure, principal director — Federal CIO Advisory Services at Accenture Federal Services, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for the details.

federal agile dave mcclure it modernization federal drive tom temin
Libros para Emprendedores
MPE003 Mentores para Emprendedores - Súper Hábitos, con Santiago Salom

Libros para Emprendedores

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 7, 2017 54:34


En este episodio nos vamos hasta Argentina para traerte a otro mentor top: Santiago Salom, emprendedor y coach de negocios, al que conoces por ser uno de los creadores del podcast de hábitos más escuchado en toda Latinoamérica, El Show de Súperhábitos. Santiago nos habla en esta charla de: - Qué hábito pocas veces recomendado puede ser clave para tu crecimiento - Por qué validar es básico antes de arrancar tu negocio - Qué es la escucha activa y cómo te ayuda a detectar ideas de negocio que funcionan - Qué son las métricas Pirata de Dave McClure y por qué son útiles para hacer crecer tu negocio Realmente una delicia descubrir a personas que comparten tantas ideas en común contigo, y son capaces de transmitirlas de una forma tan amena. ¡Tienes que escucharlo! ENLACES DE INTERÉS: Libros recomendados:  · Los 7 Hábitos de la Gente Altamente Efectiva, de Stephen Covey · Cómo Ganar Amigos e Influir en las Personas, de Dale Carnegie · Running Lean, Ash Maurya    La página web de Santiago, Matías y Lucía es esta: · SúperHábitos.com ________ Episodio patrocinado por Instituto de Emprendedores: Conoce el Plan Midas, 5 fases y 10 pasos para pasar de no tener ni siquiera una idea de negocio a tener una empresa de éxito, funcionando, generando ingresos y calidad de vida para ti y los tuyos. Enfócate en conseguir tus metas con una empresa que te proporcione los mejores resultados. El Instituto de Emprendedores te da el plan de ruta para alcanzarlo. Contenidos, cursos y coaching grupal con Luis Ramos, de Libros para Emprendedores. Consigue tus metas, ¡AHORA!  ________ ¿Necesitas un hosting de garantías para tu página web? ¿Rápido y con el mejor servicio al cliente? En Libros para Emprendedores utilizamos Siteground, porque nos da flexibilidad, rapidez en el servidor y rapidez en el servicio. Habiendo probado muuuuchas otras opciones, nos quedamos con Siteground, porque por muy poco más, obtienes mucha más calidad y tranquilidad. Haz click aquí para obtener un 60% de descuento al contratar tu servidor Siteground: https://librosparaemprendedores.net/siteground   _______________   En esta página encuentras las notas del episodio de hoy: https://librosparaemprendedores.net/mpe003    Esta es nuestra página oficial de Facebook: https://librosparaemprendedores.net/facebook Nuestro grupo de Retos para emprendedores: https://librosparaemprendedores.net/retos   Además, recuerda que puedes suscribirte al podcast en: - Nuestra página: https://librosparaemprendedores.net/feed/podcast - iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/mx/podcast/libros-para-emprendedores/id1076142249?l=es - Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/LibrosparaemprendedoresNet - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0qXuVDCYF8HvkEynJwHULb - iVoox: http://www.ivoox.com/ajx-suscribirse_jh_266011_1.html - Spreaker: http://www.spreaker.com/user/8567017/episodes/feed - Stitcher: 

The Startup Playbook Podcast
Ep057 – Rachael Neumann (Head of Australia – 500 Startups) on rebuilding trust and listening to the ecosystem

The Startup Playbook Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 11, 2017 73:13


My guest for Episode 57 of The Startup Playbook Podcast, is Rachael Neumann, the new Venture Partner and Head of Australia at 500 Startups. If you are connected to the startup ecosystem, I am sure you have read the accounts of the sexual harassment scandal sweeping the startup world over the last few months, thanks to some courageous women sharing their story and shining a light on this issue. These accounts led Uber's Founder and CEO Travis Kalancik to resign and one of the bigger pieces to come out recently was a New York Times article that named several influential VC's such as Chris Sacca from Lowercase Capital and Dave McClure from 500 Startups. Following subsequent revelations of sexual harassment by Dave against a 500 Startups entrepreneur, he has since resigned his post as general partner. All of this was against the backdrop of Dave McClure being in Melbourne just a few weeks ago to officially launch the 500 Startups Melbourne program which was part funded by the Victorian State government's $60M ecosystem development fund - LaunchVic. Caught in the middle of this firestorm was Rachael Neumann, the new Venture Partner and Head of 500 Startups in Australia who I had arranged a podcast interview with on the 29th of June, the day before the New York Times article was published As a result, this podcast is split into 2 parts; the first one covering Rachael's background as the former Head of Eventbrite in Australia where we talk about her experiences and insights into launching into new markets, the importance of having a mindset of abundance and why you shouldn't build with a focus on being acquired. The second part of the interview was recorded a few days ago over Skype, so please excuse the audio quality). In this part of the interview we cover what's happened since the New York Times article was published, how much was shared internally at 500 Startups before the revelations came out, the KPI's for the future program and Rachael and 500 Startups's plan and next steps in building a safer and more inclusive ecosystem. If you want to jump to part 2 of the interview, skip to the 47:51 mark.  Show notes: - Eventbrite - Startmate - 500 Startups - LaunchVic - Minister Philip Dalidakis - Kate Cornick - Dave Scheine (podcast interview) - 500melbourne.co - Rachael Neumann (Twitter) - Rachael Neumann (Email) - New York Times Post - Program update from LaunchVic - Event at One Roof  - Eloise Watson - Vanessa Hutchinson - Paul Naphtali - Rampersand VC - Vicky Lay (podcast interview) - Drew Corby's Pathways Podcast LIVE PODCAST WITH KATE MORRIS (FOUNDER - ADORE BEAUTY) Feedback/ connect/ say hello:  Rohit@startupplaybook.co @playbookstartup (Twitter) @rohitbhargava7 (Twitter – Rohit) Rohit Bhargava (LinkedIn) Credits: Intro music credit to Bensound Other channels: Don't have iTunes? The podcast is also available on Stitcher & Soundcloud The post Ep057 – Rachael Neumann (Head of Australia – 500 Startups) on rebuilding trust and listening to the ecosystem appeared first on Startup Playbook.

The Startup Playbook Podcast
Ep051 – Adam Stone (Founder & CEO – Speedlancer) on teams and trust

The Startup Playbook Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 30, 2017 39:29


My guest for Episode 50 of The Startup Playbook Podcast is Adam Stone, the Founder and CEO of Speedlancer. At just 22 years of age, Adam has already had several successes under his belt. He started his first company at the age of 12 (selling BB guns online) before founding his second company in the Telecommunications space at the age of 14 providing mobile phone unlocking which scaled to 120,000 paying customers from around the world. His latest company, Speedlancer, which provides the fastest way to hire freelancer and get projects done (within 4 hours!) went through the highly competitive 500 Startups Accelerator program in the US. Adam was also recently named as one of Forbes' 30 Under 30 Asia for Consumer Technology. In the episode we chat about the basics of SEO, how to network effectively, bootstrapping vs fundraising, how to get the most out of outsourcing and how to built an effective distributed team. Show notes: - Speedlancer - Dave McClure - 500 startups - Wil Schroter - startups.co - Adam Stone - Adam's Twitter - Adam's Medium Blog: 50 Lessons from 50 successful founders, investors & experts (Part 1)  Feedback/ connect/ say hello:  Rohit@startupplaybook.co @playbookstartup (Twitter) @rohitbhargava7 (Twitter – Rohit) Rohit Bhargava (LinkedIn) Credits: Intro music credit to Bensound The post Ep051 – Adam Stone (Founder & CEO – Speedlancer) on teams and trust appeared first on Startup Playbook.

The Startup Playbook Podcast
Ep050: Followups, learnings and deep dive from the last 10 months

The Startup Playbook Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 23, 2017 98:39


In Episode 50 of The Startup Playbook Podcast, I did followup interviews with 6 previous guests on the show to checkin on their progress and learnings over the last 10 months. The first guest is Tom Ellis, the Investment Director of Mai Capital, a VC fund that invests in opportunities looking to expand into the Chinese market. I first interviewed Tom in episode 17 where we spoke about his experience from both sides of the table and what he looks for in investment opportunities. In this follow up interview we talk about; finding your strengths, the need to ask for help and the importance of listening The 2nd returning guest is Matt Allen. I interviewed Matt in episode 28 where we spoke about his experience as a tech recruiter and his advice on how to find and attract tech cofounders. Matt has recently taken on a new role as the Startup Business Development Manager at AWS and in this follow up, we chat about the startup ecosystem, building networks and being authentic. The 3rd of our follow up interviews is with Adir Shiffman. In episode 12 I spoke with Adir about his change in career path from medicine to business, his experience in starting and selling multiple business and his role as the Chairman of Catapult Sports which he took to an IPO in 2014. In this follow up interview, we discuss Adir's new model for startup structuring and some of the common pitfalls and the fallout from founder breakups. Next up we have Paul Naphtali. Paul is the Cofounder and Managing Partner at Rampersand, a $50M venture capital fund for early stage technology startups. Paul was one of the earliest guests on the show and in episode 5 we spoke about the investment process at Rampersand and the common ingredients of successful startup founders. In this interview we talk about the things that attract and turnoff investors.  Our 5th guest is Justin Dry the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Vinomofo. In episode 3 Justin shared his and Andre's journey of 4 pivots over 4 years before turning to the current model. When we last spoke with Justin, they had recently closed their $25M investment round and were about to start expanding globally. In this interview we checkin with Vinomofo's global expansion, their learnings over the last year and the need to discuss failure. Our 6th and final guest is Tim Mundy. Tim is the Cofounder and Director of Digital Affair, an HR branding company that has gone through incredible growth since launching 3 years ago. In this follow up, we talk about retention, over delivering to customers and getting by giving. SHOW NOTES: Tom Ellis: (1:17 - 19:04) - Episode 17 w/ Tom Ellis on opportunities in China - Dave McClure - Mai capital website - Mai capital Twitter Matt Allen: (19:05 - 33:20) - Episode 28 w/ Matt Allen on how to attract tech cofounders - Nick Crocker - Nick Crocker Podcast interview (Ep39) on people, culture and values - Kyall Walker (Audience question) - Matt Allen Twitter - Matt email Adir Shiffman: (33:21 - 41:11) - Episode 12 w/ Adir Shiffman on the challenges of scale and the characteristics of fast growing startups - Michael Dodge - Arnold Bloch Leibler - Catapult Sports Paul Naphtali: (41:12 - 58:48) - Episode 5 w/ Paul Napthali on how to contact VC's, ingredients of successful founders & the Rampersand investment process - Patrick Poke (Audience question) - Simon Sinek - Star with Why - Rampersand Justin Dry: (58:49 - 1:18:41) - Episode 3 w/ Justin Dry on building communities, deciding when to pivot and choosing between multiple options - F'Up Nights - Pathways Podcast - Jesse Wilson (Audience question) - Justin Dry (Twitter) - Justin Dry (Facebook) - Justin Dry (Instagram) Tim Mundy: (1:18:42 - 1:37:49) - Episode 1 w/ Tim Mundy on how to get clients,

Product Mindset
AARRR Startup Metrics – Goals, Mistakes & Tips

Product Mindset

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 14, 2017 16:10


In this Topical Zoom episode, I talk about goals for each of the stages in Dave McClure's AARRR Startup Metrics and share some common mistakes, pitfalls I've seen early-stage startups make and share some tips. What will you learn about AARRR Startup Metrics? You will learn how to set goals for each of the stages […]The post DYT 080 : AARRR Startup Metrics – Goals, Mistakes & Tips | Karthik appeared first on .

goals mistakes startups metrics dave mcclure aarrr dyt
The SaaS (Software as a Service) Business Podcast
019: A Campaign Against Email Attachments with Dave Koslow

The SaaS (Software as a Service) Business Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 9, 2017 52:47


In this episode of the SaaS Business Podcast, Ron Gaver's guest is Dave Koslow, co-founder of DocSend. Dave and Ron discuss how Dave and his co-founders discovered the problem that led to the creation of DocSend, a document sharing and monitoring tool. Dave details the various ways DocSend provides users with seamless, real-time feedback, listing its advantages over tools like email attachments and screen-sharing programs. This, in turn, opens a conversation about promoting asynchronous communication for business success and how businesses can use DocSend to bridge the communication divide separating them from their clients. Along the way, Dave discusses opportunities and pitfalls for early-phase startups doing product research and design. The full show notes contain a thorough listing of all resources mentioned in the episode and a full transcript of the entire episode. Get the Full Show Notes! NOTICE After clicking the link above, you will be asked to enter your name and email address. By entering these, you are agreeing to receive email from us. To be removed from the email list, unsubscribe from any email message from us. Episode Outline Click any timestamp on the website to start listening at the noted time. [00:00] Intro [02:24] Attachments and the Failure of Transparent Communication [05:15] Purpose-Built Platform for Data Sharing [06:11] External Communication Beyond Shared Content [08:39] Using DocSend to Study the Effectiveness of Pitch Deck Slides [09:08] Using DocSend with Your Existing Documents [10:11] Raising Funds with DocSend [11:53] Investors Value a Solid Startup Team [12:43] DocSend's Study of Sequoia Capital's Recommended Pitch Deck Slides [13:19] Using DocSend for Lead Capture [14:55] Using Lead Capture for Organizational Mapping and Networking [16:35] What Happens to Your Documents after You Hit Send? [17:36] How Are Attachments Performing? [18:17] Using DocSend to Evaluate Page Engagement [19:16] The Importance of Asynchronous Communication to Business Success [21:20] Getting User Feedback from DocSend [21:57] What Feedback Are You Missing with Email Attachments? [23:40] DocSend's Feedback Is Easier Than PDFs [24:24] Using DocSend for Remote Live Presentations [25:55] DocSend's Live Present Advantages over Screen Sharing Apps [27:35] DocSend's Highlighting and Cursor Tools [28:00] DocSend's Advantages over WebEx [28:42] DocSend's Origin Story [29:33] How DocSend's Team of Founders Met [31:55] How DocSend's Founders Entered the Industry [34:20] The Character of DocSend's CEO – Russ Heddleston [35:20] The “Perfect Co-Founding Team” According to Dave McClure [35:48] Brainstorming the Idea of DocSend [36:14] Finding the Need [37:06] The Need-Finding Hustle [39:16] DocSend's Dachshund Delivery Service Marketing Campaign [40:28] Building with Heroku [41:07] Scaling with Heroku [42:25] Real-Time Messaging with Off-the-Shelf Components [43:09] DocSend and User Privacy [43:40] DocSend's Experience Working with Ruby on Rails [44:30] DocSend's Experience Creating a Website with Bootstrap [44:57] Funding: Seed Round and Series A [45:42] The Future of DocSend – Upcoming Developments [46:36] DocSend's First Conference Experience [47:19] Dave Koslow's Personal Influences [51:18] Conclusion

The James Altucher Show
Ep. 99 - Dave McClure: 500 Startups

The James Altucher Show

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 17, 2015 50:22 Transcription Available


Note: I want to apologize up front for the sound quality on this episode. We tried everything we could to get it as clear as possible but we thought this interview was so good we didn't want to discard it. Thanks in advance for struggling though - I promise it will be worth it. Dave McClure has taken a slightly different path towards the funding of startups. He gets in early in a lot of company's and expects about a third to fail. He didn't start investing as a venture capitalist until a little later in life and wasn't sure if he was already too old. Dave's story runs through some of Silicon Valley's best companies Facebook, PayPal, Mint.com, Simply Hired and others. So how did he deal with the fact that many of the people he worked side by side with wound up becoming billionaires? By being so well connected and knowing so many people opens the door to a lot of opportunities but that doesn't always mean your smart enough to pick the right ones.  Dave tells James the story of how he passed on being one of the first investors in Uber. He passed on the investment and that decision has probably cost him millions. He tells James why he's taking his company 500 Startups global. Valuations around the world are often cheaper outside the US but the real benefit may be to find companies that no one else is looking at. Listen today to a great story of someone who may have started a little later in life but has built an amazing company P.S.  Hi James here... My new book is finally out! It's taken me a year to put together all the skills I think are needed to create abundance in this new economy. I hope you write me with feedback and questions. I have more books coming.  Here's what the initial reviews on this book have said:  "James Altucher did it again. I just finished and have to say it was a great read. Great insight into the future of wealth." "I couldn't wait for this book to come out. It was well worth the wait! Very short and jam-packed with good ideas and advice for the budding entrepreneur. A must read!" "This is the road map out. Very specific ideas to get you unstuck and to thrive in the 21st century. If you follow the ideas in this book your will receive 1000% or more in return on your investment." I'm really grateful for the response I've received so quickly. I feel we are quickly building a strong community of people who are deciding to "choose themselves".    If you want to get it exclusively in hardcover, plus several other special reports, and a subscription to my brand new newsletter, which is essentially like the equivalent of two additional chapters every month, claim your copy here. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn

The Competitive Edge
TCE 030: How to Attract World Class People Into Your Life With Trevor Owens

The Competitive Edge

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 8, 2014 84:57


Trevor Owens comes on to the show to chat about how he's been able to connect with some incredible people that eventually became trusted mentors, advisors, and investors. The caliber of people in his life is truly amazing ranging from investors like Mark Suster and Dave McClure to entrepreneurs like Seth Godin and Scott Heiferman. You'll learn exactly how he did this with an initial cold email and we'll actually break down the logic behind each one. This is truly a unique episode and plays into some excellent psychology that is imperative for anyone looking to start relationships via cold email should understand. 

attract owens world class seth godin mark suster dave mcclure trevor owens scott heiferman