Podcast appearances and mentions of jeremy liew

Cameo is one of the best-known recent consumer startups. You've either used it or know someone who's used it to get famous people to create personalized videos. And, for a while, they were a total rocket ship. Year 1: $300K GMVYear 2: $4MYear 3: $20MYear 4: $100MThey were backed by Jeremy Liew, the VC who seeded Snapchat in 2012. Cameo became a unicorn in 2021. But as the markets turned, revenue decreased, investor interest waned, and their valuation dropped from $1B to $100M. After the restructuring and the layoffs, Steven found a way to turn things around.Now the company is profitable again. And growing.Here's how he did it.Why you should listen:Why you don't need liquidity to launch a marketplace.How to hack your way to a successful marketplace launch.Why organic growth is the way to grow a marketplace. How to turn things around after your valuation crashes by 90%.KeywordsCameo, startup, entrepreneurship, product-market fit, celebrity endorsements, marketplace growth, business strategy, VC funding, early-stage startups, innovation, Cameo, gifting, unicorn status, Chicago startup, engagement, COVID-19 impact, business diversification, down rounds, product-market fitTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:02:46) Where The Idea for Cameo Came From(00:11:54) The Client Interface of Cameo in the Early Days(00:14:12) The Failed launch that Could've Ended it All(00:21:23) Gaining Momentum(00:25:37) The Math Behind Cameo(00:31:27) Becoming a Unicorn(00:34:34) Meeting Jeremy Liew (the VC who backed Snapchat)(00:40:47) Engagement on the Platform(00:43:00) The Impact of Covid(00:56:06) Finding Product Market Fit(00:56:30) One Piece of AdviceSend me a message to let me know what you think!

Snapchat got 0 downloads the day it launched. 6 months in, it had only 127 users. Today Snapchat is an $18B company with 400 million daily active users. Evan Spiegel noticed what even Zuck missed: daily communication is meant to be ephemeral, not recorded for all time.In this episode, we dive deep into how Snapchat went from idea to product-market fit. Our guest is Jeremy Liew, a Partner at Lightspeed and the first investor in Snapchat. He led Lightspeed's seed round in 2012 at a $5M valuation (!!). He shares his four-part B2C framework that helped him understand why Evan and Snap were special before anyone else. If you want to understand why Snapchat took off when so many other consumer startups fail to do so, check this episode out. 

Mo Koyfman is the Founder and General Partner @ Shine Capital, who announced earlier this year Shine II, a $200M early-stage fund, and Shine Opportunities I, a $100M vehicle. Prior to founding Shine, Mo was the Managing Member @ Moko Brands where he made angel investments in Coinbase, Polychain, Harry's to name a few. Before Moko, Mo spent over 7 years as a General Partner @ Spark Capital where he made investments in Plaid, Warby Parker, Skillshare and Hivemapper, to name a few. Finally prior to Spark, Mo spent over 5 years at IAC where he oversaw group of companies that included Connected Ventures, parent of Vimeo, CollegeHumor & BustedTees. In Today's Episode with Mo Koyfman: 1.) From Entrepreneurial Parents to IAC, Spark Capital and Founding Shine: How did Mo make his way into the world of venture having worked with Dara Khros, Barry Diller and Jeremy Liew? What were some of the biggest takeaways from his time with Barry Diller and IAC? How did Mo's time at Spark impact his investing mindset? What did he learn that he took with him to founding Shine? 2.) Investment Firm vs Investment Partnership: What are the biggest differences between investment firms and investment partnerships? What are the biggest risks founders are taking when they take money from investment firms? Mo has very strong beliefs, how does he manage and inspire debates within his firm without shutting down or intimidating younger, less experienced team members? What does Mo mean when he says, "firms are great but partners matter". 3.) How To Win in Venture: Why does Mo always believe that small funds outperform large funds? What have been some of Mo's biggest lessons from Fred Wilson on fund strategy and sizing? How much of an emphasis does Mo place on the importance of ownership? Why does Mo believe the way to win in venture is to be collaborative? Why does Mo believe in the macro conditions we are entering, the landscape is about to become a lot more collaborative? Why does Mo believe any firm that says they will always do their pro rata is lying? 4.) The Lessons: Success and Failure: What are some of Mo's biggest lessons from his biggest wins, like Plaid at seed? That said, why does Mo believe it is so dangerous to try and learn lessons from the wins? What failures have been most impactful to Mo? What did he take away from them? Why does Mo believe that making great burgers is like building great companies? Items Mentioned in Today's Episode: Mo's Favourite Book: Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth

Jeremy is a genuine, relaxed, and cheerful kind of guy. He was a college dropout who had a strong passion for entrepreneurship. As a huge car enthusiast, Jeremy began his career as a sales advisor at Volkswagen and BMW for 4 years before starting his own car detailing garage. Upon an impromptu visit with Sam, who would later become his co-founder, they founded Brudee Oral Care.

Hello, and welcome back to the Robin Zander Show! My guest today is Jeremy Liew, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.  Jeremy heads up investments in consumer technology at Lightspeed, a well-known Silicon Valley venture capital firm, and has invested in iconic and culturally relevant companies, including Snap, Giphy, Rothy's, Affirm, Honest, Cheddar, and many more. Jeremy is willing to embrace the beginner's mind and practice things he doesn't know how to do - even when it is uncomfortable. And as we discuss, that trait has paid dividends throughout his personal and professional life. I know Jeremy personally through my own physical practice. We are both students of Johnny Sapinoso of San Francisco Movement Practice. In this interview, Jeremy and I discuss his background and the various transitionary points in his personal life and professional career, how his “geeky youth” set the stage for work within the early Web 1.0 companies like AOL and Netscape, his first experience in sales in his mid-20s, and his discovery of and love for movement in recent years. As a business operator and first time investor myself, we dive into how Jeremy recognizes consumer trends and the difference between being a business operator versus an investor. I hope you enjoy this wide ranging conversation about startups, consumer trends, movement, and learning with my friend, Jeremy Liew.

Jeremy Liew is a Partner @ Lightspeed Venture Partners, one of the leading firms of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Affirm, Snapchat (Snap), Mulesoft, Epic Games, Carta and more amazing companies. As for Jeremy, in the past he has led deals and sat on the boards of Snap, Affirm, Blockchain.com and The Honest Company to name a few. Before Lightspeed, Jeremy was with AOL, first as SVP of corporate development and chief of staff to the CEO, and then as general manager of Netscape. Due to his incredible investing success, Jeremy has been featured on the Forbes Midas List multiple times. In Today’s Episode We Dissect The Snapchat Memo: I. How Jeremey first learned of Snapchat How Jeremy Liew first heard about Evan Spiegel and Snapchat? "It's actually kind of a roundabout story. We first heard about Snapchat, because one of my partners Barry Eggers is a very involved dad. And he noticed that his daughter had started taking weird selfies" What was the process to first get in touch with Evan? "The challenge was, the website only had info at Snapchat email address was the only info The only contact info available. So I emailed them, and I never heard back. Why was it such a challenge? "I then looked up Snapchat on LinkedIn, and I couldn't find any contact information. And I was in a little bit of a loss, I wasn't getting any responses from the email, there was nothing listed on LinkedIn. So I ended up doing a who is look-up to try to find out who had registered the Snapchat URL, and I got an info@ snapgrouplimited email. So I emailed that. And then as again, I didn't get any response. What was the breakthrough in the end? "....Finally, what I decided to do was since Evan was a student at Stanford, and since I graduated from Stanford for business school, at that time, Facebook allowed you to message people who were in the same network, and Stanford constituted that. So I messaged him through Facebook, and I finally got a response. But this time, I got a response within five minutes." II. The Analysis Of Snapchat's Early Market What are the 4 things Jeremy looks for when making an investment in consumer? Can this become part of pop culture? Does this create new habits? Is there a scalable way to grow? Does the founder have a unique insight that explains the success? Why does Jeremy believe that usage with young females is the biggest predictor of future consumer social success? "Generalising, Women build their relationships through, you know, conversations, and they build those relationships through sharing information with each other. And obviously, that sort of conversation or relationship is a fantastic conduit for word of mouth for anything that people really appreciate." In what ways does Jeremy like to see consumer social companies become part of pop culture? "Today, if you think about whether it be social networking, apps, messaging, e commerce, streaming media, it's all part of pop culture. And so as much as movies or television or music or dance, and so if you ask yourself who are the early adopters of pop culture" What are examples of this? "Social networking, apps, messaging, e commerce, streaming media, it's all part of pop culture." Did the market evolve the way that Jeremy thought it would? "And one of the things that surprised us a little bit was that this was very strong in Southern California, Northern California, and Georgia, when we first invested and parts of the South" What was a surprise to Jeremy Liew in terms of market evolution? "In Norway, which had actually transcended, that sort of high school and college-age population, in fact, become the number three most downloaded app, most popular app, in Norway at that time. So ahead of Instagram, ahead of Facebook, and so forth. And so that's what I think gave us that early indication that the app was going to be able to break out beyond its high school, college student, initial starting point, not just in the US, but everywhere" III. Reflections on Snapchat's Early Traction What did the Snap user to install count look like at the time? "In, you know, March, April of 2012, they had about 90,000, daily active users off of the base of 180,000 installs." How does this compare with many others in the consumer social space? "That's a very, very high ratio." What were Snap's retention numbers at the time? "50% retention after 90 days, which again, suggests high engagement, high retention, high growth that speaks to upside volatility" How did Snap's frequency of usage on an individual basis look like at the time? "So people were opening the app six times per day, they were opening at least once every second day." Across, retention, usage and user to install, what are the benchmarks for great, good and average? " I would say as a rule of thumb, in messaging and social networks, you would want to see at least a DAU to MAU ratio of north of 50%. And you would want to see at least a D 30 of say 30 to 40%, for your for something to really be working to be sort of at that outlier level." IV. The Truth About The Snapchat Founding Team What unique insight does Jeremy believe that Evan always held for the company and the product? "One of the things that was so special about Evan, and that I think, has continued to contribute to the success of the company has been that he's always been able to do that to look at something with fresh eyes, and not iterate over what the current state of the art is that, you know, just from first principles basis" How has Jeremy seen Evan change and evolve as a leader? "I think his maturity as a business leader, as a leader of people, as a manager, you know, as a strategist, although he always had very good strategic instincts, but they've just continued to grow and evolve and blossom." What were some of the big inflection points in his development? "So you know, the feed has always been up until this point, in reverse chronological order, I think largely because that's what friendster do choose to do. And then Evan comes along. He says, How do you tell stories beginning, middle, end. Now go to social media? How do they tell stories in reverse chronological order means and middle beginning? Well, that doesn't make any sense. And so he said, we're going to create a whole new feed of stories, and they're going to be told in chronological order beginning middle end." Who are some unsung heroes from the Snap journey that were transformational? "Bobby doesn't get enough credit. From the very beginning from I think maybe a couple of months in was thinking about the breakthroughs that had been happening computer vision and the implications for what that could build....Imran Khan, he really helps take a lot of the load off of Evan allowed me to focus on product engineering, he took over sales and monetization Ops, he did a lot of the financing work in the time when Snapchat raised a lot of capital."

--------------- Episode Outline --------------- [04:39] Mandy’s background [07:16] Discovering that running a company, it's evident it's an emotional business. [10:13] Take time to really take a step back and use data as your foundation. [11:18] While that looks great in a spreadsheet, it doesn't work in real life because until you have a process that's documented and that you can measure, and that is getting consistent results. [12:04] Think deeply what needs to happen to hit your goal and direction you’re going to, based on what you have so far, make some assumptions on conversion, what type of pipeline you need, how many new opportunities [14:34] Consider how many demos there, do they need to have a week or how many discovery calls depending on what type of sales cycle they are, how many discovery calls? [16:35] Where is our product actually fit right now? And how are we going to attack that? [17:04] Figuring out how to hold people accountable and then the second part was how to implement that correctly with the team [19:22] The way to break the sales process into the four main categories [20:19] Why Mandy really loves mentoring people and leading a team in house -------------------- Mandy's inspirations -------------------- Mark Roberge ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/markroberge/ ) Jeremy Liew ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyliew/ ) ------------------ Connect with Mandy ------------------ Mandy Cole ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandyhcole/ )

Jeremy Liew was named by the Sydney Morning Herald as Silicon Valley’s “Most powerful Aussie”. One look at his track record, and it's no surprise why. Hailing from Perth, Jeremy is a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. After spending the ‘90s and early 2000s working for web pioneers such as Netscape, AOL, CitySearch, and Interactive Corp, Jeremy joined Lightspeed in 2006 to help the firm, which traditionally was B2B-focused, expand to the consumer. He was the first VC to invest in Snapchat and has recently invested in direct-to-consumer shoe startup Rothy's, consumer goods maker The Honest Company and online lending platform Affirm.In this episode Jeremy...-Talks us through how his career led him to VC in Silicon Valley-Tells the story behind investing in Snap-Discusses best practices for choosing board members-Explains his criteria for investing in consumer tech-Shares tips for founders looking for the right venture partner match

Jeremy Liew is a Partner @ Lightspeed Venture Partners, one of the leading firms of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Snapchat, Mulesoft, Max Levchin’s Affirm, AppDynamics and many more incredible companies. As for Jeremy, he is best known for being the 1st investor in Snapchat and has also led investments in StitchFix, Affirm, Ripple, Giphy and Bonobos just to name a few. Previously, Jeremy was with AOL, first as SVP of corporate development and chief of staff to the CEO, and then as general manager of Netscape. Due to his incredible investing success, Jeremy has been featured on the Forbes Midas List multiple times. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Jeremy made his way into the world of venture with Lightspeed and came to be one of the valley's leading consumer investors and minds? 2.) How does Jeremy think about and approach sourcing today? How has mindset on sourcing shifted over the last decade? For a new VC, what would Jeremy advise them in terms of building them benchmark for distinguishing between good and great? How does Jeremy distinguish between good and great? Who does Jeremy believe is the most naturally gifted sourcer and hunter he has worked with? 3.) What does Jeremy mean when he says, "it is more important to be right than contrarian"? From winning some of the hottest deals, what have been Jeremy's lessons on what it takes to win the most competitive? What does he mean when he says, "you have to find your home advantage"? Should investors spend time amplifying their strengths or improving their weaknesses? How does Jeremy think about the round compression timelines on hot deals today? How can investors and founders build relationships fast? 4.) Why does Jeremy believe that founder to VC engagement can be similar to a driving instructor and student? What are the biggest mistakes startups make when they hit initial traction and start to scale? WHat patterns has Jeremy seen? How can founders avoid them? 5.) How does Jeremy fundamentally structure his week and time? What time is devoted to internal meetings and partnership meetings? How much time is allocated to the existing portfolio? How much time is spent with new prospective companies? What is Jeremy's favourite and least favourite activities within the role? As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Jeremy on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

I first met Siqi Chen at a Lightspeed CEO dinner hosted by Jeremy Liew. We bonded over our mutual love of product design and fascination with customer engagement. Ever since, I’ve followed Siqi’s career from Zynga product lead to fast-pivoting startup CEO to VR executive. I love how Siqi’s ideas about vision and leadership keep evolving. This is a guy who’s always learning. Listen in and learn how this globally-minded entrepreneur is applying his hard-won innovation lessons to carving out a new category of location-based entertainment.

Invaluable insights are shared in this bonus episode - Carl Hartmann, founder of Temando and Shortlyster speaks with Jeremy Liew, Venture Capitalist at Lightspeed Venture Partners and an Australian based in San Francisco for over 21 years. Jeremy gives tips every Aussie tech founder seeking VC funding needs to be across; mostly focusing on consumer investing Jeremy shares what he looks for in portfolio companies.

Jeremy Liew is a managing partner at Lightspeed, a global investment firm. Jeremy specializes in the consumer segement - including investments in Snapchat and The Honest Company. Join us and discover what a top-tier SIlicon Valley VC thinks about the current state of consumer tech - and what’s coming next.

Ray Dalio: "Principles: Life and Work" | Talks at Google. http://bit.ly/qlearly209 How The Economic Machine Works by Ray Dalio. http://bit.ly/qlearly210 Jason Fried (Basecamp) and Derek Andersen at Startup Grind Global 2016. http://bit.ly/qlearly211 Founders' Stories: Basecamp's Jason Fried. http://bit.ly/qlearly212 FundersClub Live Q&A with Megan Quinn of Spark Capital. http://bit.ly/qlearly213 Pendomonium 2017 - How Product Experience Drives Investment & Opportunity Outcomes. http://bit.ly/qlearly214 Startup UCLA Accelerator: Jeremy Liew, Lightspeed Venture Partners. http://bit.ly/qlearly215 Steve Jobs rare footage conducting a presentation on 1980 (Insanely Great). http://bit.ly/qlearly216 1997 WWDC Fireside Chat with Steve Jobs. http://bit.ly/qlearly217 How to Get Clarity in Your Life | Rob Dyrdek on Impact Theory. http://bit.ly/qlearly218 Behind the scenes at YC Demo Day, where the hottest new startups pitch their companies. http://bit.ly/qlearly219

Jeremy Liew is a Partner @ Lightspeed Venture Partners, one of the leading firms of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Snapchat, Mulesoft, Max Levchin's Affirm, The Honest Company and many more incredible companies. As for Jeremy, he is best known for being the 1st investor in Snapchat and has also led investments in StitchFix, Affirm, Ripple, Giphy and Bonobos just to name a few. Previously, Jeremy was with AOL, first as SVP of corporate development and chief of staff to the CEO, and then as general manager of Netscape. Due to his incredible investing success, Jeremy has been featured on the Forbes Midas List multiple times. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Jeremy made his way from AOL and Netscape to one of the most successful consumer investors of the last decade? 2.) How did the Snapchat deal come about? What did Jeremy see in the early Evan Spiegel that made him so excited? How has Jeremy seen him alter and grow with the company? What did the economics of the deal look like? 3.)Why does Jeremy disagree with much of the pessimism over consumer? How does Jeremy think about the lack of distribution channel availability with Google, Amazon, Apple owning them? How can this also present an opportunity in consumer? 4.) How does Jeremy think about price and price sensitivity? Would he agree with Peter Fenton on, "never turn down a deal based on valuation, it's a mental trap"? How does Lightspeed think about reserve utilization? What does the conviction building process look like for reserve deployment? 5.) Jeremy has sat on the boards of Snapchat, Giphy, Bonobos and had 1,500 hours of board experience, so what makes the truly special board members? Who does Jeremy most like to work with on boards? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Jeremy’s Fave Book: World War Z Jeremy's Fave Blog: The Information Jeremy’s Most Recent Investment: Rothy's As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Jeremy on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Cooley are the global law firm built around startups and venture capital.  Since forming the first venture fund in Silicon Valley, Cooley has formed more venture capital funds than any other law firm in the world, with 50+ years working with VCs. They help VCs form and manage funds, make investments and handle the myriad issues that arise through a fund’s lifetime. So to learn more about the #1 most active law firm representing VC-backed companies going public. Head over to cooley.com and also at cooleygo.com. Zoom, fastest growing video and web conferencing service, providing one consistent enterprise experience that allows you to engage in an array of activities including video meetings and webinars, collaboration-enabled conference rooms, and persistent chat all in one easy platform. Plus, it is the easiest solution to manage, scale, and use, and has the most straightforward, affordable pricing. Don’t take our word for it. Zoom is the top rated conferencing app across various user review sites including G2Crowd and Trust Radius. And you can sign up for a free account (not a trial!). Just visit Zoom.us.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Venture Partners, the first investor in Snapchat, to talk about moving to America from Australia (2:10), working for Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi (4:00), the AOL diaspora (5:00), becoming a venture capitalist (7:15), tracking down Snapchat in 2012 (8:00), how a picture with Barack Obama helped sealed the deal (10:00), young women as a lead indicator (12:25), the sexting issue (15:05), the Snap rocketship (17:00), why Snapchat’s founders have created an ironclad grip over the shares (18:45), being on Evan Spiegel’s Christmas card list (21:25), Facebook’s copycat programme (22:00), Snap as the anti highlight reel (24:00), avoiding becoming Twitter (26:25), finding the next Snapchat (27:15), the power of GIF’s (29:15), investing in frivolity (31:00), on whether smartphones are ruining a generation (31:55), the next big thing (33:00) and how voice technology is going to transform the Internet (35:30). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As Managing Director at Lightspeed Venture Partners, legendary investor Jeremy Liew has been one of the earliest investors in some of the most successful tech startups of the past decade, including Snap (formerly Snapchat), GIPHY, The Honest Company, Mic, Cheddar, Blockchain and Bonobos. Jeremy has been named to Forbes' Midas List multiple times, most recently in 2016. Before an IVY Ideas Night in San Francisco, IVY's co-founder Beri Meric sat down with Jeremy to discuss his story and outlook on the venture capital and tech landscape.  Drawing on a unique personal story and deep industry experience in venture capital, general management, consumer media, internet and technology, Jeremy shares his insights on how we can all become successful investors. Please enjoy our conversation with Jeremy Liew.  And remember to visit IVY.com to enjoy access to a lifetime of learning, growth, and impact through in-person collaborations with world-class leaders, thinkers, and institution   -- This episode of the IVY Podcast is brought to you by Verst.  What if WordPress, Google Analytics, and Medium had a baby? That baby would be Verst — the first and only website platform built for the unique needs of professional publishers. Hailed by TechCrunch as the “blogging platform with all the optimization tools you need,” Verst makes it easy for you to design, manage, and optimize your website - no plugins, coding, or professional help needed. You can even harness the power of machine learning to help you get more signups, purchases, or whatever your business relies on. Anyone can try Verst free for 30 days, and IVY Podcast listeners get an extra 20% off their first 2 months with code IVY. Additionally, the first 10 IVY listeners to sign up for a paid membership will also get a personal design consultation with Verst.      

Lightspeed Venture Partners' Jeremy Liew talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about being a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley at a time when the Valley no longer represents most tech consumers. Liew argues that startup founders are popping up all over because they're now making products for Middle America and the third world, not just Palo Alto and Brooklyn. He also discusses working at AOL after the notorious Time Warner merger, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel's crucial insights that enabled Snapchat's success, and why he's not too concerned about "four years of bad presidency." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spencer Lazar is a Principal at General Catalyst Partners, based in New York City. He focuses on early stage software & internet investments, with a particular interest in online marketplaces, mobile applications, web services, and enterprise IT. Spencer was previously the cofounder of Spontaneously, Inc - an iOS development studio. Prior to that he was an early stage software & internet investor at Accel in London, where he sourced and worked with companies including Hailo, Birchbox, Bonobos, ForgeRock, and Qriously. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: How is the roads into the venture industry changing? What young people can do to make themselves more attractive to VCs? What would make Spencer's perfect founder? How important is geography when investing in startups? How does Spencer feel the education technology space is developing? What metrics Spencer examines when investing in a startup? What sectors is Spencer most interested in? Items Mentioned in Today's Show: Spencer's Favourite Book: The Everything Store on Jeff Bezos Spencer's Latest Investment: CampusJob Insight Venture Partners How Lightspeed's Jeremy Liew invested in Snapchat? Hot EdTech Startups: Lynda.com, PluralSight, General Assembly, Grovo, ClimbCredit Oscar, Sensio As always you can follow Harry, Spencer and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!