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What is the future of AI in the workplace? What kinds of jobs would you trust an AI to do? In this episode of Generative Now, host and Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano explores how AI is transforming the workforce, with insights from four sharp thinkers: Semil Shah, founding general partner at Haystack and Lightspeed Venture Partners, on the risks of replacing junior talent with agents, Suno Co-founder Mikey Schulman on AI's power to unlock creativity, Anu Atluru, founder, physician and angel investor, on how AI is reshaping medicine, and Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo and current CEO of Sunshine, on what companies must do now to adapt—or risk being left behind.Episode Chapters00:00 Introduction: AI and the Future of Work00:20 Exploring AI's Impact on the Workforce01:14 The Co-Pilot Phase of AI02:47 AI in Investment Banking and Consulting06:00 Artificial Super Intelligence: The Next Frontier09:33 Mikey Shulman on AI's Role in Creativity11:59 Anu Atluru on AI Transforming Medicine20:18 Marissa Mayer on AI's Organizational Impact26:56 Conclusion: Embracing AI's PotentialStay in touch:www.lsvp.comX: https://twitter.com/lightspeedvpLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lightspeed-venture-partners/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightspeedventurepartners/Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: generativenow.coEmail: generativenow@lsvp.comThe content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see lsvp.com/legal.
Eric Vishria is a General Partner at Benchmark Capital.Our conversation goes inside the new class of startups going zero to $100 million ARR in 12 months, the ways AI is changing company building, and how Eric and Benchmark make new investments.We get into the risk rewards of Series As today, how Benchmark competes to work with founders, and and why the best storytellers win.We also talk about parallels between the 90's, 2000's, and today, and how the archetype of successful founders has changed in the age of AI.Thanks to Spenser Skates, Sajith Wickramasekara, Bobby DeSimone, and Semil Shah for help brainstorming topics for Eric!Special thanks to this episode's sponsors:Bolt: Help them break a world record for the largest hackathon - up to $1m in prizes. Sign-up here. Numeral: The end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance. Try it here.Timestamps:(5:17) What gets Eric excited about a new investment(7:48) Backing learning machines(12:34) Backing Cerebras at inception(16:20) Why the best storytellers win(21:17) How Eric works with founders(26:38) Companies going zero to $100m in 12 months(31:09) Revenue quality of AI products(32:41) Moats and business models in AI(38:41) AI margins and runway(41:14) Parallels between winners of the 90's and today(44:54) Archetypes of the best AI founders(50:43) SaaS companies successfully pivoting to AI(53:43) LLMs are most comparable to transistors in the 1950s(56:19) Ways Eric uses AI personally(58:05) How VC has changed over the past decade(1:01:40) VC is a hustler's business(1:03:20) Backing extraordinary companies is all that matters(1:09:36) What makes Benchmark unique(1:17:03) How Benchmark makes investment decisions(1:18:38) Skipping senior year of high school(1:20:21) Working with Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen ‘00-'08(1:24:42) Starting RockMelt, selling to Yahoo(1:26:28) Joining Benchmark in 2014(1:28:08) Investing in Confluent one month later(1:28:50) Lessons from Spenser at Amplitude(1:29:36) Fireworks AI's hyper growth(1:30:49) Pricing in AI changing from tokens to outcomes(1:32:23) Ways Eric's perception of VCs changed after becoming one(1:34:07) How to build a management team(1:38:21 )The best CEOs make new mistakes(1:39:50) Why there should be more public companies(1:44:03) “Even great companies can be overvalued”ReferencedBenchmarkCerebrasBenchlingBen Thompson + Mark Zuckerberg InterviewConfluentAmplitudeFireworks AIAndy Price at Artisinal TalentFollow EricX / TwitterLinkedInFollow TurnerX/ TwitterLinkedInSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week
Michael Kim is the Founder of Cendana Capital, a fund of funds that makes anchor investments in very early stage VC funds.We talk characteristics of the best investors, how Cendana does diligence on fund managers, portfolio construction best practices, Michael's “60x rule”, and why high ownership to fund size is the main driver of returns.We also get in to how VCs are using AI, the competition between Seed and multi-stage investors, why US endowments are under siege, and how secondaries are driving most early stage venture returns today.Michael also opens up about the early days of starting Cendana, the 18 month grind raising Cendana Fund 1, the day he almost died, and ranking in the top 2% globally in Call of Duty.Special thanks to Roger Ehrenberg, Kevin Hartz, Semil Shah, Jeff Claviar, Beezer Clarkson, Jack Altman, Jeff Morris Jr, Sheel Mohnot, Nichole Wischoff, Ted Alling, and Rick Zullo for their help putting this episode together.Thanks to Bolt for supporting this episode. Check out their world record largest (up to $1m in prizes) at: https://bit.ly/ThePeelBoltHackathonTimestamps:(4:24) The day Michael almost died(5:10) Call of Duty & video games(9:34) Hiring @ Cendana(10:31) How Cendana uses structured and unstructured data(16:51) How VCs are using AI(19:55) Why secondaries are driving most early stage venture returns(22:01) Deciding when to sell secondaries(24:28) Best performing venture funds ever(27:26) The best VCs have amazing access to the best founders(33:42) Why Cendana backs Solo GPs(35:57) How to invest over time and hype cycles(41:35) Why multi-stage firms are investing earlier(44:45) Cendana's current thesis: High ownership % to fund size(45:51) Why Cendana started backing non-lead VCs(48:41) How Cendana does diligence on fund managers(52:22) VC NPS Scores and Ron Conway's Silver Bullet(53:49) Good vs bad new VC firm strategies(56:36) Determining defensibility of a strategy(57:57) “Messy middle” software buyout fund(1:03:25) Portfolio construction best practice(1:08:11) Michael's 60x Rule(1:14:28) How Seed funds compete with multi-stage funds(1:20:05) Should you collect logos writing small checks?(1:21:07) Becoming an LP for the city of SF(1:24:42) Taking 18+ months to raise Cendana Fund 1 in the GFC(1:26:48) Warehousing the first Cendana Fund 1 investments(1:29:56) How to do a first close(1:34:29) Why it's hard to kill a VC firm(1:37:00) What happens to ZIRP tourist fund managers(1:40:22) How to raise a Fund 2 or 3 today(1:42:07) “US endowments are under siege”(1:44:55) What the best GP LP relationships look like(1:46:41) What Fund of Funds get wrong(1:50:43) The three most interesting trends in venture todayReferencedCheck out Cendana https://www.cendanacapital.com/Deep Checks https://www.deepchecks.vc/Prior episode with Eric at Bolt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q6n1vqUrF4Follow MichaelTwitter: https://x.com/MKRocksLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-kim-cendana-capital/Follow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/
History may not repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes. Vibe coded games, like a flight simulator from @levelsio, are reminiscent of early iPhone app store games like Flappy Bird and Paper Toss. How else are consumer tech cycles evolving? Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano welcomes back investor Semil Shah for their quarterly check-in. They talk about the landscape of VC seed investing, the impact of AI on tech hubs like New York, LA, and the Bay Area, and whether accelerators like Y Combinator still have the same edge?Flight Simulator: fly.pieter.comEpisode Chapters:(01:22) LA vs NYC Tech Scenes(02:54) AI's Geographic Pull(05:37) Gaming as Future Consumer Tech(08:35) Vibe Coding(17:40) Seed Investing in the AI Era(25:13) The Series A Crunch(36:03) Rising Series A Standards(41:14) Bootstrapping vs VC for AI(45:26) Value of University Degrees(55:32) YC's Expanded Cohorts(57:52) Overlooked Seed TrendsStay in touch:www.lsvp.comX: https://twitter.com/lightspeedvpLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lightspeed-venture-partners/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightspeedventurepartners/Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: generativenow.coEmail: generativenow@lsvp.comThe content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see lsvp.com/legal.
Did 2024 live up to the AI hype? Investor Semil Shah joins Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano for another installment of Generative Quarterly. They cover key tech trends from 2024, including Jensen Huang's Rockstar CEO status and AI consumer devices. Looking ahead to 2025, the duo delves into venture capital dynamics, IPO and M&A prospects, and the influence of tech in Washington D.C. Plus, Michael spins Juan Soto's signing into a lesson for Tech. Episode Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:09 Reflecting on 2024: AI Expectations and Reality 02:31 The Cost and Progress of AI 09:53 Funding and Valuation in AI 11:42 Private vs Public Markets 18:21 AI Devices: Hits and Misses 28:59 Jensen Huang: The Rockstar CEO 32:58 The Rise and Risks of AI Giants 35:29 Tech's Influence in Washington 38:45 M&A Predictions and IPO Outlook 43:32 Emerging GPs and Venture Capital Trends 57:41 Juan Soto and the Tech-Baseball Connection 01:02:54 Closing Thoughts Stay in touch: www.lsvp.com X: https://twitter.com/lightspeedvp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lightspeed-venture-partners/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightspeedventurepartners/ Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: generativenow.co Email: generativenow@lsvp.com The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see lsvp.com/legal.
This week, we are back with part two of Generative Quarterly with Semil Shah and Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano. Semil is a founding General Partner of Haystack and a Venture Partner at Lightspeed. Semil and Mike pick up their conversation on consumer AI technology, starting with innovative consumer tech like Friend AI by Avi Schiffmann. Mike and Semil consider the impact of Artificial Super Intelligence on the future of work, debate the future evolution of software on demand, and ask if we need AI agents to help us solve our boredom? Episode Chapters (00:00) Introduction (00:31) Consumer AI Tech (03:05) Autonomous AI Agents Versus Copilots (04:19) Matt Levine: Robots Make Good AI Junior Analysts (05:53) Future of Training Entry Level Consultants (07:55) Artificial Super Intelligence as a Drop in Coworker (09:38) Will We Have Our Own Agentic Consultants? (11:50) Software On Demand (16:32) AI Generated Music and Content (20:31) Conclusion Stay in touch: www.lsvp.com X: https://twitter.com/lightspeedvp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lightspeed-venture-partners/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightspeedventurepartners/ Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: generativenow.co Email: generativenow@lsvp.com The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see lsvp.com/legal.
Semil Shah is back for another episode of Generative Quarterly with Michael Mignano, Lightspeed Partner and host of Generative Now. Semil is a founding General Partner of Haystack and a Venture Partner at Lightspeed. Semil and Mike discuss the seed investing landscape, challenges and opportunities in building consumer tech, and competition between Apple and Google. Episode Chapters (00:00) Welcome and Introduction (00:37) Shohei Ohtani and Baseball (03:25) State of Seed Investing (11:04) Semil's Advice on Pitching Venture Capitalists (14:26) VC Fund Dynamics and AI Hype Machine (18:42) Miami's Tech Scene (19:18) Building the Next Big AI Consumer Product: Hype vs Reality (26:52) Apple's New iPhone: Where is the Apple Intelligence? (32:17) Google Android (34:04) Conclusion Stay in touch: www.lsvp.com X: https://twitter.com/lightspeedvp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lightspeed-venture-partners/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightspeedventurepartners/ Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: generativenow.co Email: generativenow@lsvp.com The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see lsvp.com/legal.
Semil Shah sits down with Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano for a quarterly conversation about AI and its evolving impact on startups, VCs, and incumbents. They also discuss Chris Paik's essay “The End of Software,” tech cleanses, Apple's WWDC, and the difference in thinking between LCs, GPs, and VCs in the landscape of AI. Semil Shah is the Founding General Partner of Haystack and a General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Episode Chapters (00:00) Intro to Episode (4:42) “The End of Software” (7:30) Computer Science and Philosophy (11:19) Where Technology Won't Go (19:33) Tech Cleanse (24:07) WWDC24 - Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (26:40) ChatGPT & Apple Intelligence (33:13) Tim Cook (45:20) Ben Thompson (48:10) Google (52:09) VC and AI (59:11) How LPs think about AI (01:06:57) How GPs think about AI (01:12:56) Vinod Khosla, OpenAI, and Square (01:14:49) Opposite George (01:25:40) Jerry Seinfeld, Neal Brennan, Rick Rubin, Lex Friedman (01:28:53) “The Greatest Show on Earth” Stay in touch: www.lsvp.com X: https://twitter.com/lightspeedvp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lightspeed-venture-partners/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightspeedventurepartners/ Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: generativenow.co Email: generativenow@lsvp.com The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see lsvp.com/legal.
Semil Shah, General Partner at Haystack and Venture Partner at Lightspeed, is known for at least two things: his insightful Twitter presence and his smart investments at Haystack VC. Semil joins Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano to talk venture capital insights and the unpredictable nature of startup success. The conversation also covers the evolving landscape of AI investments, the unique nature of Reddit's IPO, and the future of unique user-generated content. Additionally, they discuss the dynamics between LPs, venture funds, and startups in the current market environment. Episode Chapters (00:00) Introduction to Semil Shah (03:31) Semil Shah's Twitter Presence (05:46) Navigating the AI Investment Landscape: Insights and Predictions (10:19) The Role of Acquisitions and Talent in Shaping AI's Future (18:57) Venture Capital Strategies (19:33) Capital as a Weapon in Venture Capital (23:27) The Art of Investment Decisions (25:45) How AI has Changed the Venture Landscape (27:52) The Venture Ecosystem: LPs, Funds, and Startups (32:22) The Future of AI and Open Source (36:26) The Reddit IPO: A Market Turning Point? (41:21) Closing Thoughts Stay in touch: www.lsvp.com X: https://twitter.com/lightspeedvp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lightspeed-venture-partners/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightspeedventurepartners/ Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: generativenow.co Email: generativenow@lsvp.com The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see lsvp.com/legal.
In this special replay episode Semil Shah of Haystack joins Nick to discuss 1st Institutional VC Fund Raised– Key Learnings. We address questions including: Maybe we can start off with how your investment focus has evolved since the last time you joined us. What are your thoughts on how seed has split into pre-seed, seed, seed extension, and post seed? Are you investing once with a company or reserving for these various stages within seed? You just closed fund 3… tell us about the first two funds that set the stage. Would you do things differently if you could go back? Which raise was the hardest? How did the expectations of LPs change from the early funds to the institutional fund? What surprised you most about the raise? Did you connect w/ prospectives through referrals, cold calls, a combination? Walk us through the metrics… how many targets, meetings, avg commitment amt, etc. Did you ever think you might not complete the raise? What's the best advice you got on the raise and who'd you get it from? In our first interview, you talked about how you couldn't get a full-time job at a venture firm. I'm sure you've had plenty of offers as you've built a track record. Did you ever consider making the jump? When I sent my fund deck to you, you said “Awesome and looks good. As I always say, the deck matters much less than having capital partners who believe in you” For anyone listening that aspires to raise… talk about what you meant by this comment. Guest Links: Semil's Blog Semil on Twitter How To Transform A VC Fund Capital Base From Individuals To Institutional LPs The hosts of The Full Ratchet are Nick Moran and Nate Pierotti of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in founders outside of the Bay Area. Want to keep up to date with The Full Ratchet? Follow us on social. You can learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our LinkedIn and Twitter. Are you a founder looking for your next investor? Visit our free tool VC-Rank and we'll send a list of potential investors right to your inbox!
Semil Shah is the Founder of Haystack, an institutional venture capital firm that backs outlier founders at the earliest stages. Semil started Haystack in 2013, and has since invested in X unicorns like DoorDash, Instacart, Figma, HashiCorp, Ironclad, Carta, Applied Intuition, and Opendoor. This episode takes us behind the scenes of Semil's two decade journey building Haystack from scratch. We'll dive into how he raised and deployed each of the first six Haystack funds, including all the mistakes made along the way, plus the details around Haystack's new $75 million and $25 million funds announced the date this episode was published. Read Haystack's announcement here: https://semilshah.com/2023/09/10/announcing-haystack-vii-same-model-fresh-funds-and-new-era/ — Brought to you by Mercury, the bank built for startups. Join more than 100,000 startups and venture capital firms on Mercury, the powerful and intuitive way for ambitious companies to bank. Sign-up now: https://bit.ly/3sQRzOw Listen to my conversation with Immad, the Co-founder and CEO of Mercury: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/24ujuXZ2uws48bvwOh9NcR Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lessons-from-building-mercury-with-immad-akhund-co/id1694440669?i=1000619360042 Disclaimer: Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust; Members FDIC. — Topics discussed include: Juggling multiple jobs while living paycheck to paycheck his first eight years in Silicon Valley Failing to get his first job in venture three times Investing in the Seed rounds of unicorns DoorDash, Instacart, Hashicorp, and Envoy within the first six months of starting Haystack Why he initially thought Haystack would be a short-term thing Turning down multiple lucrative job offers two years in How the best LPs evaluate VC funds on the “Entry Ownership to Fund Size” ratio Semil's strategy of “crawl, walk, run” to increase Haystack's check sizes over time The pain he felt failing to hit his target fund size on the first four fundraises and how he handled it Why everyone should “pre-market” a fundraise, and how to do it The things most founders don't appreciate about raising a venture fund Fighting to invest in Ironclad's Seed round before he had his next fund raised How LPs reference VCs, and how a VC can become referenceable Why Haystack Fund IV was the scariest fund to raise How Semil builds relationships with LPs The hardest questions he faced raising each fund and what other VCs should anticipate while raising their own fund How LP investment committees make decisions What's going on behind the scenes at most large venture LPs today Why the traditional advice of “finding an anchor LP” makes no sense Spilling his secret on the best quarter to fundraise Why VCs should fundraise with a hard cap on fund size Why every VC should appreciate and remember how LPs supported them through the pandemic All the details on Haystack's new $75 million and $25 million funds Semil's plan for the next 10 years Three pieces of advice for emerging fund managers Where to find Semil: Twitter: https://twitter.com/semil LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/semilshah/ Where to find Turner: Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak Production and distribution by: https://www.supermix.io/ For sponsorship inquiries: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebvhBlDDfHJyQdQWs8RwpFxWg-UbG0H-VFey05QSHvLxkZPQ/viewform
Semil is the founder and GP at Haystack, an early-stage VC firm with $450M+ AUM. He's an investor in 200+ companies including DoorDash, Instacart, Hashicorp, Figma and more. In this conversation we discuss the current funding environment, Semil's approach to venture capital and making early investments, and his advice for founders starting a company and fundraising in today's market. This was a really fun discussion and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did! LinksFollow Semil on TwitterHit subscribe to keep up with new episodes!Follow Ashish and Zane on Twitter for summariesClick here to share feedback — it only takes a minute
Semil is the founder and GP at Haystack, an early-stage VC firm with $450M+ AUM. He's an investor in 200+ companies including DoorDash, Instacart, Hashicorp, Figma and more. In this conversation we discuss the current funding environment, Semil's approach to venture capital and making early investments, and his advice for founders starting a company and fundraising in today's market. This was a really fun discussion and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did! LinksFollow Semil on TwitterHit subscribe to keep up with new episodes!Follow Ashish and Zane on Twitter for summariesClick here to share feedback — it only takes a minute
This week's Unlimited Partner is Semil Shah the GP for Haystack Ventures, one of the best performing seed-stage funds around. see: DoorDash, Instacart, Figma, Opendoor, HashiCorp, Carta, People.ai among others. Semil gives great insight into how he is as a leader, investor, parent. He's calm, structured, thoughtful and measured in his responses. Also, check out our Youtube page for some new video clips of Thomas and Semil! Haystack site Semil's LinkedIn Semil's Twitter Topics Include: -Fear as a motivator -HashiCorp -Infrastructure as software -Time horizons, decision making as a leader -Family Semil's song is Jose Gonzalez Heartbeats Links: Thomas McGannon LinkedIn Follow us on social media: Like and subscribe and all that stuff...stay in touch as we will have exciting updates and content soon... @uppodpod Twitter @uppodpod Instagram UP YouTube Channel up-pod.com (Now with ListenNotes for transcripts of each episode) Email us: show@up-pod.com, DISCLAIMER: The host and others associated with this podcast may have investments with the guests and/or the companies associated with them. This is for entertainment purposes only. It is not financial advice. Please do your own research.
In the 43rd episode Semil Shah, Partner at Haystack, joins to discuss whether the company brand name or partner matters more in VC, how he almost invested in Coinbase when it was at only $20M, the flywheel of VC and how it's evolving and what he looks for in a founder. (0:05) Welcome Semil Shah(7:08) Early VC content creation(18:12) Brand name vs partners in VC(26:06) The VC flywheel(35:03) Your role in venture(45:00) What you look for in founders(54:12) Where do your deals come from(58:20) Open AI(1:02:45) Dry powder(1:06:27) How would you manage your third fund?(1:14:40) Semil's take on crypto(1:21:02) Podcasting evolution(1:27:24) Outro Mixed and edited: Justin HrabovskyProduced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad AssirExecutive Producer: Josh MachizMusic: Griff Lawson
Semil Shah, General Partner at Haystack Ventures, talks about fundraising in a changing VC environment. Semil highlights ways for founders to raise investors' interest in their companies, and explains why founders should occasionally imagine a future where they won't have to raise more capital.In this episode, you'll learn:[**4:56**] Ask investors questions to make the conversation more interesting.[**8:10**] Build something and let investors reach out to you.[**12:23**] Do the risks you've taken show that you really want to be in the game?[**18:14**] Enterprise value will drive startup fundraising in the future.The non-profit organization that Semil is passionate about: Humane Society Silicon Valley (HSSV)About Guest SpeakerSemil Shah is the founding general partner at Haystack Ventures. Semil has also been a Venture Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners since 2018. In 2022, he was featured on the inaugural Midas Seed List (in partnership with Forbes Magazine) as one of the top 25 seed investors worldwide. Fun fact: Before Semil got into investing, he had a winding career path that took him to an early-stage startup, to the galleys of the NY restaurant scene, and even a butcher shop.About Haystack VenturesHaystack Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that backs outlier founders at the earliest stages. Haystack has been a fortunate investor in 200+ companies, including DoorDash, Instacart, Hashicorp, Figma, Opendoor, Carta, Applied Intuition, Filecoin, Ironclad and more.Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode. Follow Us: Twitter | Linkedin | Instagram | Facebook
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Semil Shah is the Founder of Haystack, one of the leading pre-seed and seed firms of the last decade. Among Semil's portfolio include the likes of DoorDash ($DASH), Instacart, Hashicorp ($HCP), Opendoor ($OPEN), Figma (acquired by Adobe), Carta and many more exceptional companies. Semil's first fund is marked between a 30 and 40x fund, astonishing. In Today's Episode with Semil Shah We Discuss: 1.) The Makings of Semil Shah: What is Semil running away from? What is he running towards? What does Semil know now that he wishes he had known when entering venture? What is Semil's biggest advice to managers raising their first funds now? 2.) Fund Sizing: Growing vs Staying Disciplined: Question from Hunter Walk: How does Semil determine the right size fund to raise with each fund Question from Satya Patel: Why have you resisted increasing AUM? In the last episode Semil mentioned a three-year deployment cycle for the fund, did he stick to it? What are the benefits and drawbacks? What investing mistakes did Semil make over the last 3 years that he wishes he had not made? 3.) The Secret to Fundraising for a Fund: What is Semil's biggest advice to emerging managers on finding new LPs? What works? What materials do managers need to have in place for a new fundraise? Deck? Dataroom? What are the most common mistakes VCs make when pitching LPs their funds? How does Semil follow-up with potential LPs post-call? What works? What does not? How does Semil suggest creating a sense of urgency for LPs to commit to a fund? How does Semil feel about giving preferential terms to convince LPs to commit to the first close? 4.) The Current Landscape: For VCs: How will the current landscape impact emerging managers' ability to raise? What advice would Semil give to them? Raise smaller? Kyle Harrison said on the show recently, “differentiation will kill 80% of venture firms, especially the so-so ones”. Does Semil agree? Who is set to struggle? Who is set to thrive in this environment? For LPs: What does Semil think are the biggest mistakes LPs made over the last 2-3 years? How will they respond in this market cycle? If Semil were handed an endowment fund, how would he allocate today? Does Semil agree, we will see a denigration of venture returns to those of PE like multiples? Why? For Founders: How does Semil advise founders on raising today when everyone says they are investing but very few really are? How does Semil advise founders on how to think about valuation inflection points with respect to raising capital? Items Mentioned in Today's Episode: Semil's Favourite Article: Master of Play Semil's Most Recent Investment: Impart Security
Paul and Randy are joined by Semil Shah of Haystack VC to discuss ways VCs find new deals.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Semil Shah (@semil), investor at Haystack and venture partner at Lightspeed, joins Lucas Bagno to discuss:- The trends Semil sees in the entrepreneurial landscape today: the ease of getting started as a founder, the fight for ownership among funds, and renewed attention to dilution from founders.- How he raised his most recent fund at Haystack and how he determined what size of fund to raise.- The lessons he's learned about deploying funds.- What the downturn means for fund managers.- The state of seed investing.- The impact of the changes to YC's standard offer.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We'll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Devin Finzer is the Founder & CEO @ Opensea, the world's first and largest NFT marketplace allowing you to discover, collect, and sell extraordinary NFTs. To date, Devin has raised over $423M for the company with their last $300M round valuing Opensea at $13.3BN. Before changing the world of NFTs, Devin co-founded ClaimDog which was acquired by Credit Karma and before founding ClaimDog, Devin was an engineer at Pinterest. Do want to say, I always love Semil Shah's startup of the year, for 2021 it was Opensea, check out his piece here. In Today's Episode with Devin Finzer You Will Learn: 1.) How Devin made his way into the world of NFTs and came to found the first and largest NFT marketplace in the form of Opensea? 2.) The Scaling Story: What were the first early signs that Opensea was working when they were in YC? What core metrics did they look at to determine success? Given NFTs not being "hot" at the time, how was the fundraising process for Opensea coming out of YC? What were the early investors most excited about? What was the inflection point when Opensea and NFTs really started to take off? What most surprised Devin about the way in which the inflection point happened? When scaling from $150M to $4BN in GMV, what are the first things to break in a company? How does Devin maintain company morale with such volatile crypto and NFT markets? 3.) The Next Decade of NFTs: How does Devin predict large brands and companies will utilise NFTs for their businesses? In what ways does Devin think creators and celebrities will use NFTs moving forward to create more efficient business models? How does Devin respond to the statement, "NFTs do more to harm than help income inequality?" What are Devin's biggest concerns moving forward when analysing the NFT market? How does Devin see the future for the development and experimentation of NFTs? 4.) The Future of NFT & Gaming: How does Devin see NFTs impacting the world of gaming most? How does Devin think about interacting with these gaming communities that are external to the centralised Opensea marketplace? Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode with Devin Finzer Devin's Favourite Book: Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managers.
Today’s episode is with Semil Shah, founder and general partner at Haystack, a pre-seed and seed-stage supporting outlier founders. Their portfolio includes DoorDash, Instacart, HashiCorp, Figma, Applied Intuition and many more. Get on the email list at ventureunlocked.substack.com
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Johnny Boufarhat is the Founder & CEO @ Hopin, one of the fastest-growing companies on the planet, providing an online events platform where you can create engaging virtual events that connect people around the globe. In the last 13 months, Johnny has raised over $174M for Hopin from the likes of Accel, IVP, Slack, Northzone, Coatue, Salesforce and of course, 20VC Fund. With the funding, again in just 13 months, Johnny has grown the team from 10 people to over 210 people in 37 countries. In October of this year, Semil Shah awarded Hopin the label, "The Breakout Tech Startup Of 2020". In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Johnny made his way into the world of startups and how severe health challenges led to his realisation and founding of Hopin? 2.) What have been Johnny's biggest lessons scaling the team from 10 to 235 in just 12 months? What starts to break and when? What does Johnny believe are the 3 stages of startup growth? What have been Johnny's learnings on what it takes to acquire the very best talent? 3.) Why does Johnny believe that remote has so fundamentally changed the game? How does remote culture differ from physical culture? What advice does Johnny have for those shifting from physical to remote? Where does Johnny see so many make mistakes with the remote model? 4.) Why does Johnny believe fundraising is a game of leverage? How does Johnny advise founders to structure their raise? Should they shop their term sheets around? Should founders always be raising? How should they think through a pre-emptive round? How does COVID change the world of fundraising? 5.) What does the world of virtual events look like in a post COVID world? What events will remain virtual? What will not? How does Hopin expand beyond purely events into the much wider "connection" space? How does that look both from M&A and product expansion? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode Johnny’s Favourite Book: Nineteen Eighty-Four As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
Semil Shah, Managing Partner, Haystack VC Key Takeaways: 1) LP's struggle to deploy capital without face to face opportunities, so emerging managers are not being funded as quickly as they hoped. On the flip side, many LP's are excited about the pending reset in asset prices from a downturn, and funding may pick up sooner than expected as they search for improved returns over the next decade. 2) The investors that are able to play offense through these times have triaged the portfolio effectively and are now focused on upside maximization. 3) COVID provides tailwinds, but many of these tailwinds are obvious in times like this (telemedicine, online education, collaboration software, etc). Funds should be careful before building a portfolio just off of the current times.
Brad Feld talks with Semil Shah, founder of the venture capital fund Haystack, who shares his inspiring founder story. With limited experience in the entrepreneurial world, Semil relied on his mentors to see the potential in him. Seven years later, he continues to pay it forward by helping turn other’s ideas into reality. Semil talks about how he turned his passion for writing about startups into a career as a founder of an early stage investment fund and partner at LightSpeed Venture Partners. Learn how Haystack raised their first million dollar fund and how they differentiate themselves from similar companies in the Bay Area. Follow Semil on Twitter: @semil See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
This week we’re having tea with Semil Shah. Through his seed fund, Haystack, he's invested in 70+ startups including Instacart, DoorDash, and Opendoor. He's also a venture partner at Lightspeed. In this episode, Semil shares: - 2:48: What entrepreneurs need to know about portfolio construction - 10:08: Why public markets aren't matching the private investment sector - 19:30: How entrepreneurs can use valuation as a lever when fundraising - 22:28: Why he passed on investing in Clubhouse Want to hear more? Like the episode? Send us a note at seriestea@mercury.com.
Semil Shah is the Founder of Haystack - an early-stage venture fund. He's also one of Silicon Valley's most interesting personalities - he's been a chef, a media maven, and just about everything in-between. In a wide-ranging interview, we ask Semil about the future of media and the future of tech. We talk about quarantine life with Semil, and what he enjoys cooking most while sheltered in place (and what it's like to be sheltered in place with a full house). We talk about the gradual opening up of the economy and taking more risks like meetings with friends - and the overall sustainability of remaining in closed quarters constantly. Semil is a Twitter celebrity of sorts, so we talk about the role of Twitter in breaking news about the pandemic. Particularly the role of Balaji Srinivasan (@balajis) in sharing early news about the pandemic with people on Twitter. And whether he deserves an award for doing so.Semil provides candid feedback to people in the media world about what the industry will need to do to survive. Semil has written for Techcrunch, run a show for them, and written for various other outlets so he has a unique take on the subject. You don't want to miss today's episode of This is Your Life in Silicon Valley.
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Mike Maples is a Founder & Partner @ Floodgate, one of the leading early-stage firms of the last decade with investments in the likes of Lyft, Twitch, Twitter, Okta and Sonos to name a few. He has been on the Forbes Midas List since 2010 and was also named one of “8 Rising Stars” by FORTUNE Magazine. Before becoming a full-time investor, Mike was involved as a founder and operating executive at back-to-back startup IPOs, including Tivoli Systems (IPO TIVS, acquired by IBM) and Motive (IPO MOTV, acquired by Alcatel-Lucent.) In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Mike made his way from founding startups to entering the world of venture and the gap he saw in the market when founding Floodgate? 2.) Mike has previously said, "a startup is not a company, it is a series of breakthroughs". How does Mike define a breakthrough? What are the 2 most meaningful breakthroughs a startup can experience? Which excites Mike the most to see? How do the best startups scale pre-breakthrough to post-breakthrough? 3.) What are the core ways inflections can create breakthrough opportunities? What were Mike's learnings on inflections from investing in Lyft? What does Mike mean when he talks about the importance of "backcasting"? What did investing in Twitch teach Mike about forecasting? 4.) How does Mike feel about the rise of operator and angel funds? How does Mike analyse the re-entrance of large multi-stage funds back into seed markets? Does Mike agree with Semil Shah, "founders are voting with their feet and taking multi-stage money at seed"? 5.) As Mike's peers have all moved into larger funds, Mike did not, why? How does Mike view "fund size as your strategy"? How does Mike think about the centrality of ownership? Does Mike really believe you can concentrate capital into your winners? What are the challenges? Why does Mike feel self-promotion is one of the biggest challenges in VC? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Mike’s Fave Book: Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction Mike’s Most Recent Investment: CommonStock As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Mike and on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
Early stage founders need to come to terms with lower valuations due to the crisis. The demand shift is real. Guest - Semil Shah, Founder and General Partner at Haystack howardlindzon.com, haystack.vc Twitter: @howardlindzon, @semil, @haystackvc, @knutjensen
Semil Shah of Haystack joins Nick on a special Crisis Coverage installment to discuss VC Fund Management in a Pandemic World. In this episode, we cover: Last time we had you on was Nov. 2017... quick update on you and Haystack since then? LP interaction - are capital call defaults a serious issue to consider in this environment? How do you think investment dollar volume adjusts in 2020 vs. '19? I know you've had a lot of calls w/ friends and mentors lately... what are you hearing from the veteran investors right now? What feedback or insights have surprised you? What actions have you taken since the crisis hit to adjust your own strategy? How do you see the value of face-to-face interaction playing out in the VC-Founder interaction during pitches moving forward? How are you prioritizing reserves when triaging? In the case of a fund running low on dry powder right now, what are your thoughts on reopening a fund? In what cases should an early stage company change their business model to address the changing environment? What are your thoughts on GTM, or changes in GTM, in this environment? I saw that you guys are Crowdsourcing a list of startups who have changed their business model to help fight covid-19. What have been the most interesting so far? Over/under on duration? To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Manu Kumar is the Founder @ K9 Ventures, one of the leading seed firms of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Carta, Lyft, Twilio, Auth0 and Lucidchart to name a few incredible companies. Prior to K9, Manu was either the founder or co-founder of 4 companies, 3 of which with successful exits and the 4th being the fantastic Carta. Manu also has an incredible model with K9 where he not only invests in companies but also founds them and is currently the founder and CEO @ HiHello, the company that allows you to network smarter providing digital business cards designed to help you curate and grow your network. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Manu made his way into the world of venture having founded 4 prior companies and how he came to found K9 and be one of the OG's of pre-seed funding, having coined the term? 2.) What does Manu believe have been the biggest and most significant changes in the early stage market over the last 7 years? How does Manu evaluate the rise of operator and scout funds? Would Manu agree with Semil Shah, "founders are voting with their feet and taking multi-stage money at seed?" What advice does Manu give to founders on taking multi-stage money at seed? How does Manu evaluate their aggressive movement back into the seed stage? Why is it? 3.) Given Manu only makes 3-4 new investments per year, how does Manu think about and assess his own portfolio construction today? How does Manu think about building temporal diversification into the portfolio? What does Manu believe is the biggest mistake early-stage managers make in the first few years? Why does Manu believe that "group think" is so dangerous for funds today? What can they do deliberately to avoid it? 4.) Manu not only invests but also founds companies at the same time, how does Manu split his time and what does his day look like? What are the benefits of investing and operating simultaneously? What are the biggest challenges and drawbacks? What elements did Manu believe as an investor before starting his new company, HiHello, that he has now changed his mind on, post founding the company? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Manu’s Fave Book: How to Win Friends and Influence People Manu’s Most Recent Investment: Workona: A Better Way To Work As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Manu on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Katie Stanton is the Founder and General Partner of Moxxie Ventures, investing in founders who make life and work better. Prior to Moxxie, Katie was a Founding Partner of #angels and has the most incredible angel portfolio including Airtable, Carta, Cameo, Coinbase and Modern Fertility to name a few. Katie also served in numerous executive operating roles at Twitter, Google, Yahoo, and Color and also served in the (Obama) White House and State Department. If that was not enough, Katie is also on the board of Vivendi and previously sat on the board of Time Inc. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Katie made her way into the world of tech with Yahoo? How did that translate into her investing in Lowercase Fund I? How did the angel investing lead to founding Moxxie? How has Katie found her investment mindset has changed moving from angel to VC? 2.) How did Katie find the fundraise for Moxxie? How many LPs did Katie meet and how did she structure the process? What does Katie think she did well in the fundraise? What would she look to improve or change when raising for Fund II? What advice was Katie given in the process by Semil Shah which really changed her thinking? What advice would Katie give to other emerging managers raising today? 3.) Does Katie agree with Semil Shah that "founders are voting with their feet in taking multi-stage money at seed"? What advice does Katie give to founders who do have these offers from multi-stage funds at seed? How does Katie assess these later stage funds moving earlier? How should smaller micro-managers respond to this? 4.) How does Katie think about portfolio construction today with Moxxie? What are the hard rules that mean Katie is willing to walk away from a deal? How does Katie think about and assess her own price sensitivity? In terms of decision-making, what support system has Katie built around herself to enhance her decision-making process? 5.) How does Katie advice founders when it comes to selecting their VC? What are the most common ways founders look for and need to help with? How does Katie think about party rounds? When are they good? When are they not? Why does Katie believe so much of the power has shifted to the hands of the founders? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Katie’s Fave Book: Becoming by Michelle Obama, Angel by Jason Calacanis Katie’s Most Recent Investment: ethel's club As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Katie on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
Semil Shah from Haystack shows how even a tweet sometimes needs a TLDR: https://twitter.com/semil/status/1154918822291263489?s=21 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
John Vrionis is the Founder and Managing Partner @ Unusual Ventures, the firm that is redefining seed investing and raising the bar for what entrepreneurs should expect from a seed investment firm. Prior to founding Unusual, John spent 11 years as a Partner @ Lightspeed where his investments included Mulesoft, AppDynamics, Nimble Storage and Heptio to name a few. Before Lightspeed John spent time in product management and sales @ Determina and Freedom Financial Network. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did John make his way into the world of venture and come to be a Partner @ Lightspeed? How did that lead to his founding Unusual? How did his father's MS diagnosis change his mentality towards both investing and how he views the world? What were John's biggest takeaways from his 12 years with the Lightspeed partnership? 2.) Where does John feel the bar needs to be raised in venture? What does the current product not offer? What do seed-stage founders fundamentally need? How have Unusual structured the firm to provide this? How was the fundraise for John? What does John know post-closing that he wishes he had known at the beginning? What advice would John give to aspiring emerging managers? Why is LP diversity so important to John? 3.) Why does John believe taking multi-stage money at seed is not in the best interests of the founder? How does John explain this logically to founders? Does John agree with Semil Shah, "founders are voting with their feet and choosing multi-stage funds"? Why does John believe to be truly best in class, you have to specialise? Does this not go against the data of Benchmark, Sequoia, Founders Fund, all generalist funds, having the best returns? 4.) How does John think about being company vs being founder first? What does one do when alignment erodes between the interest of the firm and the interest of the founder? How does John look to build a relationship of trust and honesty with his founders? What works? What does not work? How does John feel about VCs being friends with their founders? 5.) What is the most challenging element of John's role today with Unusual? Who is the best board member John has ever sat on a board with? Why and what did he learn? What would John most like to change about the world of venture today? What would he like to remain the same? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: John’s Fave Book: Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE, Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success John’s Most Recent Investment: Shujinko As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and John on Twitter here!
On today's episode we're jumping back into the world of venture capital.I'm joined by one of my favorite early stage investors out there, Semil Shah. He's Founder of Haystack Ventures and Partner at Lightspeed. Semi came on this episode of Predicting The Turn to talk about things like how he got into venture capital, the impact the 2019 IPO market will have on startups, and how the concept of triangulation can be used by larger companies for startup engagement.
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Brianne Kimmel is the Founder and Managing Partner @ Work Life Ventures, a very new firm focused on the future of work backed by some of the best in the valley including Marc Andreesen, Chris Dixon, Zoom's Eric Yuan, InVision's Clark Valberg and then dear friends of the show, Alexis Ohanian, Garry Tan and Matt Mazzeo. To date, Brianne has invested in the likes of Webflow, Tandem, Lunchclub and Girlboss to name a few. Prior to starting Work Life, Brianne spent 2 years at Zendesk on their GTM strategy; building Zendesk for startups, ultimately representing 3,000 startups and 250 accelerators. From 2013-2017 Brianne also taught over 5,000 students at General Assembly all things user acquisition and growth marketing. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Brianne made her way into the world of startups and SaaS, how that led to her angel investing and what was that a-ha moment for the founding of Work Life? Why did Brianne choose to structure Work Life as a holding company? 2.) With the fund, how does Brianne think about portfolio construction? What is the right check size for her? Why does Brianne think we are seeing more angel funds than ever today? Why are we seeing so many celebrity names on the cap tables of great companies? How does Brianne think about scout programs? What impact have they had? Why is Brianne against founders actively angel investing? 3.) What does Brianne advise founders on how to structure a high-signal round? What are the two types of angels that exist in the world today? What can founders do to keep their angels actively engaged? How have what founders expect from their angels changed over the last few years? How does one measure the true value of an angel? 4.) Does Brianne agree with Semil Shah, we are seeing "founders vote with their feet and bypass seed funds for multi-stage funds"? How does Brianne advise founders when choosing between a boutique seed firm and a large multi-stage firm? What does Brianne believe are the pros and cons of taking multi-stage money at seed? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Brianne’s Most Recent Investment: Pace As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Brianne on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Jason Boehmig is the Founder & CEO @ Ironclad, the startup that provides powerful legal contracting for modern legal teams. To date, Jason has raised over $84m with Ironclad from some of the best in the business including Sequoia, Accel, Greylock, Emergence, IA Ventures, Semil Shah's Haystack and Ali Rowghani who led their recent $50m Series C from Y Combinator Continuity Fund. As for Jason, prior to founding Ironclad, he was both a corporate attorney with Fenwick & West and then also an adjunct professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Jason left the world of law and made his way into the world of startups and came to be founder of one of Silicon Valley's hottest startups, Ironclad? How did Jason's experience at Lehmann Brothers impact his operating mentality today as a founder? What were his big lessons on personal conviction from seeing Lehmann unravel? 2.) Ironclad is famed for their customer discovery process, so how does Jason think about product development in the early days? What core questions does Jason ask to understand customer needs and desires? How does Jason determine what to implement and what to prioritise? How does Jason think about the balance between data vs gut in product decision-making? What have been his lessons here? 3.) When it comes to hiring, how does Jason approach keeping top of funnel constantly full? Why does Jason believe that when hiring, "when there is doubt, there is no doubt"? What are the common reasons that Jason does not hire a potentially strong candidate? How does Jason determine between a stretch VP and a stretch too far? 4.) How does Jason think about relationship building with VCs? Where do so many founders make mistakes in this process? What advice does Jason have on successfully negotiating with VCs? What works? What does not? What value-add has Jason realised VCs really can and do provide? Where is there a suggestion that they do but rarely do? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Jason’s Fave Book: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Jason on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
In this episode, we are getting a behind the scenes look into the thought process of a VC. This is the perfect episode for young entrepreneurs and startup founders. Today we have Semil Shah, the founder of Haystack a seed stage VC fund. Semil was an early investor in DoorDash, Instacart, HelloSign, Giphy and others. He’s also known for being a prolific writer, sharing his thoughts on VC and tech. During this interview we dig into what he looks for in startups & founders. And some of his successes and some investments that didn’t pan out. If you’re a founder, this one’s for you. Enjoy.
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Semil Shah is the Founder & General Partner @ Haystack, one of the valley's leading seed funds of the last 5 years with a portfolio including the likes of Instacart, DoorDash, Carta, OpenDoor, Hashicorp and more $Bn companies. Alongside his role at Haystack, Semil is also a Venture Partner @ Lightspeed Venture Partners. Prior to founding Swell, Semil was on the operating side as an early advisor and employee at Concept.io (Swell), acquired by Apple in August 2014. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Semil make his way into the world of venture from his start writing about startups and financing rounds? How did that also lead to his role as Venture Partner @ Lightspeed today? 2.) What does Semil mean when he says, "the most talented founders are bypassing seed firms and seed rounds"? How does this mean that seed funds need to respond? For founders, what are the pros and cons of taking a multi-stage fund at seed? Will they really get GP time with such a small check? How should they also think about potential signalling risk? 3.) Does Semil share Harry's concern with regards to pricing today? What do multi-stage funds investing at seed do to pricing? Why is staying disciplined on price the biggest challenge for Semil? How does Semil assess his own price sensitivity and when to stretch? Does Semil believe that ownership is built on first check or overtime? 4.) How does the strategy for Semil change moving from a $25m fund to a $50m fund? Why does Semil think that temporal diversification is such an important element to bake into a portfolio? What are the benefits? How does Semil think about effective reserve allocation today? What does that investment decision-making process look like the 2nd time? 5.) How has Semil seen the ecosystem for VC fundraises change over the last 5 years? What would Semil like to change about the ecosystem of LPs? What blanket rule does Semil believe that LPs should introduce for new managers to ensure discipline? For Semil, how did the fundraise differ for the latest $50m fund compared to the prior $25m fund? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Semil’s Fave Book: Reboot by Jerry Colonna As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Semil on Twitter her
This week on the Sales Hacker podcast, we speak with Semil Shah, General Partner at Haystack and Venture Partner at Lightspeed. Semil has made a name for himself as an “observational leader”; someone who shares what he sees on the ground and passes it on for people to respond to, benefit or learn from. He's also one of the most well known and well respected writers on venture capital and early stage investing.
This week on the Sales Hacker podcast, we speak with Semil Shah, General Partner at Haystack and Venture Partner at Lightspeed. Semil has made a name for himself as an “observational leader”; someone who shares what he sees on the ground and passes it on for people to respond to, benefit or learn from. He’s also one of the most well known and well respected writers on venture capital and early stage investing.
Investing in the Future
Semil Shah, Founder at Haystack & Venture Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, talks about his journey to becoming a successful Venture Capitalist. Semil founded Haystack in 2013 (An Early Stage Investment Fund). Some successful portfolio companies in Haystack include DoorDash, Instacart, Carta, Giphy, and Wag. Some Questions answered by Semil in this Podcast - 1. What are his learnings for people who want to become a VC? 2. How to choose the kind of Investor you want to become? Do you want to sit on the Board or do you want to be Growth & Network Driven? 3. Is there any other path to become a VC other than an Ivy League college followed by some experience as a Consultant? 4. What should a 23-24 year old be doing fresh after college, to enter this Ecosystem? 5. What was his First Fund size? How did he convince his first 5 LPs to put in the money? 6. How did he happen to join Lightspeed Ventures? 7. What are the Key Elements he looks for while investing? 8. How much of his time does he dedicate to raise funds vs time spent on deploying it? 9. What habits does he attribute for his success as a VC in such a short time (which generally takes others 10-15 years to achieve)?
Ash Rust of Sterling Road joins Nick to discuss "Blessed" Teams, Pseudo Deal Leads, and Caps at Pre vs Post. In this episode, we cover: His beginnings in tech and how that led to starting the fund What's the investment thesis at Sterling Road? What's unique about your approach that other firms aren't doing? Something that I think is frustrating for many founders is seeing these idealistic stories of founders that are raising $5M on a $20M cap with zero traction. And, it's also misleading in that I have a number of founders that think they need to be raising a lot more than they are... very early on before indications of product fit or even a focused commercial plan. Can you talk about the profile of these teams that are able to raise seemingly irrational seed rounds and then later let's jump into consequences. The seed round has now divided into a series of phases... we have pre-seed, seed, mango seed, seed+, seed exensions, etc. We've spoken to Semil Shah about this and how it's no longer a stage it's a series of phases and gates. Can you talk about these phases and how founders should think about milestones and raise amounts prior to raising an A? At New Stack we've encountered some strange and troubling circumstances regarding who the lead investor is on a deal and who is not. What are you seeing in terms of who takes the lead and how has that evolved over the past few years? Pro Rata has always been a hot button issue, for a variety of reasons and we're seeing some new challenges emerge as our portcos are raising up-rounds. What are the key issues you're observing with pro rata and what's your opinion on how it should be handled? A number of my founders are either raising more in their seed round or trying to pull-in and raise their A rounds before their ready b/c everyone is sounding the alarms about an impending recession... raise the money now, before it dries up. This seems curious and a bit misleading from my standpoint... What are your thoughts on founders raising more money or raising sooner because of a potential recession? I've been getting a number of pitch decks from so-called "CFOs" at startups... yet, upon review of a LinkedIN profile, it's pretty clear that these folks are bankers. Are you seeing the same and what are your thoughts? I think it was about eight months ago that YC changed its SAFE to a post-money cap, instead of a pre-money cap. They claimed to have the right intentions when they made the switch but we were immediately suspect for a few obvious reasons, some less so. Talk about about SAFEs as an investment instrument and your thoughts on the switch to post money caps. To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.
Anybody can start a company! A delightful conversation with an incredible individual that takes us through a vivid journey of an entrepreneur. Jonathan Viner is the Co-Founder of Wag which is a mobile application used to instantly find trusted and certified dog walkers. Wag has raised over 360 million from respected firms and investors such as General Catalyst, Sherpa Capital, Greylock Partners, Semil Shah, Olivia Munn, and most recently the legendary Softbank group! From pioneering games on social networks to co-founding the first on-demand dog walk app that happens to be one of LA’s top startups, Jon’s story is exciting, to say the least! An intriguing episode that has many golden nuggets especially for those that one day hope to start their own company! Learned a bunch from this one, hope you will too!
Haystack founder and Lightspeed Ventures venture partner Semil Shah talks with Recode's Teddy Schleifer about breaking into the VC world and how the industry is changing. In this episode:03:45 - How Shah got involved with tech07:57 - How hard should it be to get a VC job?16:10 - Misconceptions about venture capital21:33 - What exactly is a “venture partner?”26:08 - How important is luck to being a good VC?31:32 - Being a lone wolf and breaking in36:07 - Doing deals outside Silicon Valley46:31 - SoftBank49:41 - Venture capital in 2038 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Armon Dadgar is the Founder & CTO @ Hashicorp, the open-source software company that provides consistent workflows to provision, secure, connect and run any infrastructure for any application. To date, Hashicorp has raised over $74m in VC funding from many friends of the show including Scott Raney @ Redpoint, Glenn Solomon @ GGV, Semil Shah, True Ventures and Mayfield. As for Armon, today he leads the Hashicorp research group and focused on industrial research in the security and large-scale system management space. Prior to founding Hashicorp, Armon was a software engineer @ Kiip and Amazon. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Armon made his way from intern at Amazon to founding Hashicorp and creating the game-changing suite of tools in the world of DevOps? 2.) Hashicorp has enjoyed success after success with new products, so what does Armon believe is the secret to continuous product innovation? What does Armon mean when he says "there are really 3 phases to product adoption"? How does Armon determine between vision for a product and the realism when it is not working, when launching products? 3.) Hashicorp only recently started generating revenue, why was now the right time? At what point does one go from building products for the community to building products people will pay for? How does Armon assess professional services today? What does Armon believe are the 2 foundational problems with "professional services"? 4.) Many VCs suggest it's impossible to build big infrastructure businesses today given the commoditizing forces to open source and cloud computing. How have Hashicorp navigated that and bucked that conventional wisdom? How has Armon also bucked the conventional wisdom on the importance of focus? What core tenets must remain if one wants to go against this emphasis on focus? 5.) Armon and his co-founder brought on a CEO early, what was the realisation moment for the need to bring in an external CEO? How did Armon look to get comfortable with this transition? What advice would Armon give to founders contemplating bringing in an external CEO? With the benefit of hindsight, what would Armon do differently if he had the time again? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Armon’s Fave Book: To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Armon on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Are you told your standards are too high, well The League is the app that tells you to keep them that way, they know your time is valuable so simply tell them your preferences and they will handle the scouting and vetting for you. Plus even better, your profile will only ever be seen by people who match your preferences, matches expire after 21 days and so there are no drawn-out games and they even require LinkedIn to protect your privacy and block you from matching with co-workers and business connections. You can apply now by downloading The League on the app store or heading to The League.com Zoom is the fastest-growing video and web conferencing service, providing one consistent enterprise experience that allows you to engage in an a variety of activities including video meetings and webinars, collaboration-enabled conference rooms, and persistent chat all in one platform. Plus, it is the easiest solution to manage, scale, and use, and has the most straightforward, affordable pricing. And you can see for yourself! Sign up for a free account (not a trial!). Just visit Zoom.us. Culture Amp is the platform that makes it easy to collect, understand and act on employee feedback. From onboarding surveys to company-wide engagement, individual effectiveness and more, the platform manages multiple sources of feedback and connects the dots for you and that is why companies like Slack, Nike, Oracle and Lyft all trust Culture Amp. It enables leaders to make better decisions, demonstrate impact and turn your company culture into a competitive edge. Find out more on cultureamp.com.
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Today Matthew Lynley, Connie Loizos and I were joined by Semil Shah, the founder of seed-stage fund Haystack and venture partner at Lightspeed. This week, we stuck to our roots: big rounds, venture capital liquidity thirst, one IPO, two Vision Funds, and three scooter jokes. Maybe more than three, but who is counting. First up we took on Circle's new $110 million round, working to understand why the firm is raising new capital at such a huge valuation (~$3 billion!). Also in play: Circle's new lead investor isn't a venture capital shop, making the monetary infusion all the more interesting. (Oh, and here's more on the Basis stable coin we brought up.) Next, we chatted through NEA's plan to raise a fresh $1 billion to buy a lot of its stakes in startups that have yet to find an exit, allowing it, presumably, to return a chunk of capital to its own investors. The move is potentially fraught with conflict, we think, but perhaps it's also the way of the future. After that, it was time for an IPO break. Lynley had just got off the horn with the CEO we went through Pluralsight's IPO that priced on Wednesday and started trading on Thursday. Short version: it went well. Capping off this particular episode was a rundown of the potential for a new Softbank Vision Fund. What's better than raising a half-squillion dollars? Raising a full squillion dollars. So drink up, tech world. There's still plenty of money to go around. Equity drops every Friday at 6:00 am PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Downcast and all the casts.
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Today Matthew Lynley, Connie Loizos and I were joined by Semil Shah, the founder of seed-stage fund Haystack and venture partner at Lightspeed. This week, we stuck to our roots: big rounds, venture capital liquidity thirst, one IPO, two Vision Funds, and three scooter jokes. Maybe more than three, but who is counting. First up we took on Circle's new $110 million round, working to understand why the firm is raising new capital at such a huge valuation (~$3 billion!). Also in play: Circle's new lead investor isn't a venture capital shop, making the monetary infusion all the more interesting. (Oh, and here's more on the Basis stable coin we brought up.) Next, we chatted through NEA's plan to raise a fresh $1 billion to buy a lot of its stakes in startups that have yet to find an exit, allowing it, presumably, to return a chunk of capital to its own investors. The move is potentially fraught with conflict, we think, but perhaps it's also the way of the future. After that, it was time for an IPO break. Lynley had just got off the horn with the CEO we went through Pluralsight's IPO that priced on Wednesday and started trading on Thursday. Short version: it went well. Capping off this particular episode was a rundown of the potential for a new Softbank Vision Fund. What's better than raising a half-squillion dollars? Raising a full squillion dollars. So drink up, tech world. There's still plenty of money to go around. Equity drops every Friday at 6:00 am PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Downcast and all the casts.
If your closest colleagues were asked to describe the way in which you conducted yourself in your professional career, what might you hope to hear? For Semil Shah, the adjectives he strives for are: dependable, consistent, and reliable. As the founder of Haystack and the father of three young children, Semil takes immense pride in his ability to be seen as available and accountable despite his busy schedule, so much so, that he feels pangs of guilt when he considers his dependability to be slipping. In his second appearance on the Reboot Podcast, Semil works with Jerry to unpack the driving forces that sit behind his need to be seen by his peers in a certain light, and how this need might be limiting his ability to build honest, meaningful connections with those he cares about. Through their conversation, Jerry and Semil explore the root of Semil’s guilt, the power of perception, and beauty of aging with grace. Links Semil Shah on Twitter - https://twitter.com/semil #46 - Hitting a Wall - with Semil Shah - https://www.reboot.io/episode/46-we-are-not-different-with-semil-shah/
Origins - A podcast about Limited Partners, created by Notation Capital
On this episode of Origins, we sit down with Semil Shah of Haystack, an early-stage venture firm based in SF. Semil has a non-traditional background for VC and has been vocal about the unique way he's building the firm, recently making the transition into an institutionally backed fund. He's an active blogger, and an investor in startups like Instacart, Giphy, Carta, and many others. In the interview, we focus on how Semil has approached each of the Haystack funds, the stories behind some of his best investments, and lessons learned along the way as he's grown the firm.
Todays Insights When did Semil start investing? What was Semil's main aquisitions? What are the benefits of reading? Whats the best way to get a meeting with Semil? How has Semils investments into delivery companies work out? Where did Semil learn the most? Whats Semils first deal? What excites Semil the most? Biggest companies he's missed? Whats the current overhyped ICO's? What's a productivity hack? Semil’s Projects: Semil’s AngelList profile Haystack.vc Semil’s Twitter: @semil The post Semil Shah on Instacart, Amazon and the Future of Retail and Groceries ALL-191 appeared first on FBA Allstars.
Semil Shah and Jenna chat about his first investments at Haystack in companies like Hired and Instacart and reflect on a few big bets taken by portfolio companies like Wag and Managed by Q. We discuss the realities of being a VC such as creating space to let your mind rest so your subconscious can kick in evaluating investments, the challenge of saying ‘No' to founders you admire, as well as developing a willingness to concentrate risk to have outsized returns. We also walk through key insights from Semil's blog including: whether you need to be paranoid to succeed, the difference between stubbornness and resilience and how to cultivate the latter, in the moment tips to take a step back to make decisions from a place of clarity not adrenaline, and always choosing the opportunity where you can learn the most.
Vic Pascucci of Lightbank joins Nick to discuss New Founders, New Stages, New Offerings-- The Only Constant in Venture is Change. In this episode, we cover: Where'd you get your start in venture and how'd your path lead to Lightbank? Can you walk us through the Lightbank backstory... before you joined? What's the current thesis and investment focus for the firm? How active a role do you play with portfolio companies? What, if anything, do you think the team at Lightbank can do a better job of going forward? Do you think your approach is different than Eric and Brad's? Recently spoke w/ Semil Shah about the multiple stages, within seed... pre-seed, seed, inst seed, post seed, seed extension. WTF is going on with the seed round? There's been an explosion of seed funds... do you think this is a problem? Is there a bubble at seed or, w/ the way barriers to startup have come down, is the influx of capital warranted? I'm noticing entrepreneurs moving away from SAFEs and Convertibles... are you seeing the same? If so, why do you think that's the case? How have you seen startup capital raises change over time and do you think it's moving in the right direction? What should every founder be thinking about, during a fundraise, that most often they're not even considering? Are you seeing a difference in the makeup of founding teams and their capabilities? From personal experience, I certainly notice a difference in the style and approach of a early-20's tech founder vs. a mid-30s founder w/ domain knowledge. So, you're a blockchain guy... I see you on various blockchain boards and I know that you invested in Coinbase in 2015... and, on the record, you were very bullish on cryptocurrency's at the time, when many were not. But what's the deal w/ all these token offerings and ICOs? I'm a relative novice here... can you explain to me what's going on and where you see it going? To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.
An engineer who wants to start a business using investment capital needs to understand the expectations of investors. The market for the business needs to be huge. The team needs to have a differentiated understanding of the market, or a differentiated product. The CEO needs to have the determination to continue operating the company even The post Early Investments with Semil Shah appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.
An engineer who wants to start a business using investment capital needs to understand the expectations of investors. The market for the business needs to be huge. The team needs to have a differentiated understanding of the market, or a differentiated product. The CEO needs to have the determination to continue operating the company even The post Early Investments with Semil Shah appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.
Semil Shah of Haystack joins Nick to discuss First Institutional VC Fund Raised-- Key Learnings, Part 1. We address questions including: Maybe we can start off with how your investment focus has evolved since the last time you joined us. What are your thoughts on how seed has split into pre-seed, seed, seed extension, and post seed? Are you investing once with a company or reserving for these various stages within seed? You just closed fund 3... tell us about the first two funds that set the stage. Would you do things differently if you could go back? Which raise was the hardest? How did the expectations of LPs change from the early funds to the institutional fund? What surprised you most about the raise? Did you connect w/ prospectives through referrals, cold calls, a combination? Walk us through the metrics... how many targets, meetings, avg commitment amt, etc. Did you ever think you might not complete the raise? What's the best advice you got on the raise and who'd you get it from? In our first interview, you talked about how you couldn't get a full-time job at a venture firm. I'm sure you've had plenty of offers as you've built a track record. Did you ever consider making the jump? When I sent my fund deck to you, you said "Awesome and looks good. As I always say, the deck matters much less than having capital partners who believe in you" For anyone listening that aspires to raise... talk about what you meant by this comment. To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.
“I'm obsessive by nature … and when I meet someone that's 100X of that in their own thing, but they're also good at what they do, I feel very lucky.” Venture capitalist Semil Shah is looking for entrepreneurs with a combination of talent and drive, who out-class others in what they do and prioritize their obsession with building an enterprise. Semil is an investor and writer based in Silicon Valley who created a small fund called Haystack. He has been an early investor in 70-plus companies such as Instacart, DoorDash, Hired, and OpenDoor. Semil is also Venture Partner with GGV Capital, and he was named to the 2017 Midas Brink List by Forbes. He fell into venture capital through his work as a writer and consultant to several firms on Sand Hill Road, including General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins and GGV Capital. Today we discuss the attributes of Semil's writing that led VCs to utilize his work as a resource and current themes in the world of venture capital and entrepreneurship. Semil shares his early investing experience, what gets him pumped about financing a project, and how he applies the Saturday 2pm Test to potential investments. Listen in to understand Semil's take on the role of seed capital versus series A money and his advice for up-and-coming VCs. Resources: Semil's Blog: http://blog.semilshah.com/ SoftBank Vision Fund: https://softbank-ia.com/node/8 Fred Wilson's Blog: http://avc.com/ Sequoia Scouts: https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/scouts/ Andy Johns on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ibringtraffic
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Semil Shah is the founder of Haystack, an early stage investment firm now investing out of it’s fourth fund, with previous investments in the likes of Instacart, DoorDash, Giphy, OpenDoor & Managed by Q. Semil is also a Venture Partner @ GGV Capital, one of the leading multi-stage funds and in the past he has also been a consultant to the likes of Kleiner Perkins, DFJ, General Catalyst and more. If that was not enough, Shah also has an extensive career in media having been a contributor for both TechCrunch and the Harvard Business Review in the past. Due to all of this, Shah is known for being on the speed dial of some of the industry’s most respected VCs with the likes of Marc Andreessen naming him one of his ’55 Unknown Rockstars in Tech’. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Semil made the transition from the world of writing to investing alongside some of the best in venture with Haystack? 2.) Why do more and more managers want to introduce institutional capital into their LP base? What are the advantages? What are the drawbacks? Where does Semil see most managers going wrong when pursuing institutional capital for the first time? 3.) What does Semil mean when he states the importance of "pre-marketing"? How open is one in these pre-discussions with potential LPs? What is the right amount of time to be pre-marketing for? How does Semil determine whether to adopt a piece of LP advice and when not to? 4.) In the raising process, why does Semil never like to the use the deck when meeting in person? What core elements of the presentation did LPs always hone in on? What tips does Semil have to potential managers to ensure they can pitch at any time, not just the boardroom? 5.) How has moving from non-institutional to institutional fund, changed how Semil thinks about reserve allocation? Why does Semil believe that the majority of LPs have a wrong thesis to reserve allocation? 6.) Why does Semil believe the VC business model is severely constrained in terms of exits through IPO and acquisition? What does this mean for the use of secondaries? How will managers need to incorporate this into their strategy? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Semil’s Fave Blog: AVC Semil’s Most Recent Investment: Ironclad As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Semil on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Lattice is the #1 performance management solution for growing companies. With Lattice, it’s easy to launch 360 performance review cycles as often as you want. And you also get a continuous feedback system with OKR goal tracking, real-time feedback, and 1-on-1 meetings to make sure employees get feedback between reviews. Find out why the likes of CoinBase, PlanGrid, Birchbox and WePay trust Lattice as their performance management solution by heading over to lattice.com to start investing in your people. That’s Lattice.com. Recurly, the company powering subscription success, with Recurly’s enterprise-class subscription management platform providing rapid time-to-value without requiring massive integration effort and expense and they have the ability to not only increase revenue by 7% but also reduce the all-important churn rate. That is why thousands of customers from Twitch to HubSpot to CBS Interactive trust Recurly as their subscription management platform. Check them out on recurly.com that really is a must.
Semil is the founder of Haystack.vc a pre-seed VC fund which is a proud early investor in Instacart, DoorDash, Hired, Hashicorp, eShares, Giphy, OpenDoor, Chariot, Managed By Q, and many other companies. Prior to investing, Semil worked at Concept.io where he learned product focused design and he has taken many of these lessons through to... The post Semil Shah on Instacart, Amazon and the Future of Retail and Groceries appeared first on The Syndicate.
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Ted Blosser is the founder and CEO of WorkRamp, the startup that is transforming how the best companies like PayPal, Twilio, and Optimizely train and develop their employees. They are backed by top investors like Initialized Capital, Susa Ventures, Liquid2, and Slack, in addition to prominent angels like Elad Gil, Adrian Aoun, Semil Shah, and Charlie Songhurst. As for Ted, he is a Y Combinator Alumni and was an early employee at the enterprise powerhouse, Box. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Ted made the move from early employee at Box to founding WorkRamp? 2.) What were the big takeaways for Ted from seeing the rocketship growth of Box? How has he applied them to starting WorkRamp? 3.) Ted has previously said, 'you should build your investor team like a sports team'. What does Ted mean by this? How did this affect what he looked for in his investors? What does Ted advise other founders when it comes to VC selection? 4.) How does Ted view the short term and the long term value add of investors? How does Ted look to leverage their abilities and connections and get the most out of having them on board? 5.) Taking a step back, many VCs want product market fit, how does Ted assess product market fit? What have been his learnings from YC that shape his attitude to PMF? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Ted’s Fave Book: The Last Lecture As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC, Ted on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. The Simba Hybrid. The most advanced mattress in the world. With a unique combination of two thousand five hundred conical pocket springs and responsive memory foam, it offers the perfect support for two people. A mattress that responds to you and your partner’s sleeping patterns. Delivered free, with a one hundred night sleep trial, free returns and a ten year guarantee. Start your free trial at simbasleep.com Cirrus Insight is a plugin for sales pros who use Gmail and Outlook. It automatically updates activities in Salesforce so you don’t have to. It was named #41 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies, and it has more than 1,700 customer reviews on the Salesforce AppExchange. Today, it serves over 150,000 sales people across 5,000 organizations using Gmail, Outlook, iPhone, iPad, and Android. Cirrus Insight is perfect for sales, support, and success teams who want to save time, schedule 3x more appointments, track email opens and much more with Salesforce information at their fingertips in the inbox. www.cirrusinsight.com/20VC
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Henry Ward is the Founder & CEO @ eShares, the No 1 cap table management platform providing equity management, 409A valuations and liquidity all in one place. They are backed by leading investors and past guests including USV, SV Angel, Spark Capital, Semil Shah, Manu Kumar, Tim Draper and Kamal Ravikant, just to name a few. Prior to eShares, Henry was Founder @ SecondSight, the first registered investment advisor to go direct to your brokerage and improve your portfolio. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Henry made his way into the world of startups and came to found eShares? 2.) How does Henry challenge the notion that investors should have such high fail rates? How does Henry believe investors can build a strong and sustainable portfolio without home runs? 3.) Why does Henry believe that investors will never accept market risk? How much of a role does Henry believe herd mentality plays in the VC ecosystem? 4.) How does Henry view the increasing exit horizons for startups? Is this a problem? How can we create liquidity options pre large exits? 5.) How does Henry view the role of regulation in private markets? How does this differ to public markets? What would Henry like to see change in the VC ecosystem? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Henry’s Fave Blog: Hacker News Henry’s Fave Book: The Essays Of Warren Buffett As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Henry on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. The Simba Hybrid. The most advanced mattress in the world. With a unique combination of two thousand five hundred conical pocket springs and responsive memory foam, it offers the perfect support for two people. A mattress that responds to you and your partner’s sleeping patterns. Delivered free, with a one hundred night sleep trial, free returns and a ten year guarantee. Start your free trial at simbasleep.com Cirrus Insight is a plugin for sales pros who use Gmail and Outlook. It automatically updates activities in Salesforce so you don’t have to. It was named #41 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies, and it has more than 1,700 customer reviews on the Salesforce AppExchange. Today, it serves over 150,000 sales people across 5,000 organizations using Gmail, Outlook, iPhone, iPad, and Android. Cirrus Insight is perfect for sales, support, and success teams who want to save time, schedule 3x more appointments, track email opens and much more with Salesforce information at their fingertips in the inbox. www.cirrusinsight.com/20VC
“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.” ― Steven Pressfield "The War of Art" Semil Shah has done remarkably well as a one-man shop, but he is wrestling with the challenges of growing his business and being with his growing family of 5, while continuing to grow himself. Adding to those challenges, there’s also a sneaky voice for him, one that can drive him and also hold him back, one that is saying to him: “You don’t belong here, yet.” At the end of the day, we are not that different because we all have a version of that voice, often referred to as impostor syndrome, but the opportunity for all of us lies in how we are with that voice. Jerry and Semil explore that voice, and how shifting his relationship with it can help him be a better man and a better investor - the very things it and he are after. Links Full show notes: - https://www.reboot.io/episode/46-we-are-not-different-with-semil-shah/ Semil Shah on Twitter - https://twitter.com/semil Semil Shah's blog - http://blog.semilshah.com/ Getting Things Done by David Allen - https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280 Writing Therapy in Impostor Syndrome - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome#Therapy Impostor Syndrome - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome Fred Wilson - https://twitter.com/fredwilson
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Semil Shah is the founder of Haystack, an early stage investment firm now investing out of it’s third fund, with previous investments being Instacart, DoorDash, Managed by Q. In the past he has also been a consultant to some of the leading funds in the valley including the likes of Kleiner Perkins, DFJ, General Catalyst and more. If that was not enough, Shah also has an extensive career in media having been a contributor for both TechCrunch and the Harvard Business Review in the past. Due to all of this Shah was listed by Marc Andreesen as one of his '55 Unknown Rockstars in Tech'. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Semil made his way into VC? How did he come to create Haystack? 2.) What were the challenges and concerns for Semil in raising and establishing his own fund? 3.) Question from Michelle Tandler: How does Semil send deals through to Series A? What is his 'cool' process? What are the commonalities of those that make it to Series A and those that do not? 4.) How has Semil approached the aspect of personal VC branding? How does he evaluate the rise of the personal VC brand in the last few years? 5.) Why does Semil believe he is not 'founder friendly' in the conventional sense? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Semil’s Fave Book: Burmese Days by George Orwell Semil’s Most Recent Investment: AquaCloud As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Semil on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here! This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to designers from around the world. How Does It Work? Once you have launched your brief, designers will begin submitting quality designs for you to review. With some constructive feedback, you can quickly generate a large gallery of designs that really do fit your needs. You can have exactly what you need within just three days. Once you have selected your favourite design, you will be sent all the files you require to update your branding. If you don’t like any of the submitted designs, then DesignCrowd offers a money back guarantee. So checkout designcrowd.com/VC and enter the promo code VC100 to get an astonishing $100 off your next project.
Semil Shah of Haystack joins Nick to cover The Path to Series A, Part 2. We will address questions including: We are all looking for great founders and teams at the seed stage. What additional team dynamics and construction may A round investors be looking for beyond what's required at... To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.
Semil Shah of Haystack joins Nick to cover The Path to Series A, Part 1. We will address questions including: Can you walk us through your background and how you became involved in startup investing? Can you first talk about why you've written about the path to A in the... To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.
On this episode, I talk to the dynamic Kimberly Bryant of BlackGirlsCode. Kimberly was a professional biotechnology engineer before founding the program and has been recognized by Oprah Winfrey and Toyota for her work during Oprah's The Life You Want tour. She's been commended by the White House as a tech champion, and has been profiled by Forbes, MademeNoire, Marie Claire, and CNN. Part 2 features a discussion with Semil Shah, a VC at Haystack Fund on his ideas on minority tech entrepreneurship, and his thoughts on how we might find solutions to issues in investment capital.
Semil Shah shares a valuable investor's perspective on the business of podcasting for episode 73 of The Wolf Den. Semil is a venture capital advisor and investor, an active blogger and columnist, and was part of the team that developed and marketed the Swell podcast discovery and listening app that was acquired by Apple last year. Semil gives Adam his recommendations on the ideal podcast episode length, along with some tips on organizing and structuring a podcast, all of which come from listening data. He also takes on the divide between iOS and Android when it comes to support for podcasting, and what that means for the future of Apple's CarPlay and mobile listening in the car. Finally, Semil provides some advice for entrepreneurs looking to fund podcasting startups.
Luc-Olivier talks about the current state of streaming services. Related Links FU: Yanik buying Mighty Gunvolt on his New 3DS with Suica FU: The Verge: Apple Pay now supports the cards that make up 90 percent of credit card purchases in the US FU: The Verge: Google Wallet for iOS now supports Touch ID and helps you split the bill FU: Keith Rabois w/ Semil Shah, Dissecting Apple Pay FU: Luc-Olivier used his iPad to post the last episode Taylor Swift removes all her music from Spotify | Daily Mail UK On Taylor Swift’s Decision To Remove Her Music from Spotify | Spotify Blog $2 Billion and Counting | Spotify Blog Spotify Explained | Spotify Artists Spotify Royalties | Wikipedia
In this episode Semil Shah (Product at Swell, writer, and investor) joins me, Ryan Hoover, to chat about one of my favorite topics, home screen apps. We also talk about Swell, Semil’s approach to investing, and washing vegetables in the shower. Enjoy. Products mentioned: - Swell - http://www.producthunt.co/posts/swell - Stitcher - http://stitcher.com/ - Soundcloud - http://soundcloud.com/ - Sunrise - http://www.producthunt.co/posts/sunrise - Circa - http://www.producthunt.co/posts/circa - Pocket - http://getpocket.com - Medium for iOS - http://www.producthunt.co/posts/medium-for-iOS - Clear - http://realmacsoftware.com/clear - Asana - http://asana.com/ - Last - http://last.co - Slack - http://www.producthunt.co/posts/slack - MessageMe - http://messageme.com - Quibb - http://www.producthunt.co/posts/quibb - Refresh - http://www.producthunt.co/posts/refresh-1-6 - Instacarthttp://instacart.com Subscribe on iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/product-hunt/id862714883
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