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Accel

also referred to as: accel partners

includes Accel II, Accel III, Accel Growth, Accel IV, Accel London

134 statements across 44 episodes · 58 bullish · 30 bearish · 39 people on the record · first statement Jun 8, 2015 by Charlie O'Donnell · said 529 times in 175 episodes since 2015 · across every show →

Mentions by year, the whole family

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (293), Jason Lemkin (18), Hussein Kanji (17), Sonali De Rycker (9), Scott Farquhar (8), Rich Wong (7), Jim Swartz (7), Vlad Magdalin (6)

tap a year for its mentions
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2025 49 mentions in 31 episodes 2 per episode
2024 58 mentions in 21 episodes 3 per episode
2023 22 mentions in 9 episodes 2 per episode
2022 46 mentions in 14 episodes 3 per episode
2021 84 mentions in 18 episodes 5 per episode
2020 60 mentions in 11 episodes 5 per episode
2019 33 mentions in 10 episodes 3 per episode
2018 20 mentions in 9 episodes 2 per episode
2017 42 mentions in 15 episodes 3 per episode
2016 55 mentions in 15 episodes 4 per episode
2015 30 mentions in 8 episodes 4 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Accel, oldest first

Jun 8, 2015
Assertion Supported
GM Pension Fund has invested in every Accel fund since Accel I
“GM had been an investor in venture funds since the late seventies. They're invested in Excel, for example, all the way on from Excel number one all the way on through.”
Charlie O'Donnell Jun 8, 2015 ▶ 3:28 20 VC 043: How To Be A VC Analyst and Lessons From Union Square and First Round with Charlie O'Donnell, Founder @ Brooklyn Bridge Venture
Sep 6, 2015 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Soltero: Hyperic bootstrapped two years before Accel/Benchmark funding and $420M exit
“We ended up bootstrapping Hyperic actually for two years before we raised money ultimately from Excel and Benchmark who were great investors. And helped us take this thing to you know, ultimately a four hundred and twenty million dollar acquisition by VMware, …”
Javier Soltero Sep 6, 2015 ▶ 5:33 FF 012: Acquired by Microsoft for $200m with Javier Soltero @ Microsoft
Sep 21, 2015 positive
Disclosure
Treskow: Accel invested early in Facebook despite an unquantifiable market size
“So, so Facebook is, is a great example. You know, when we invested early on, you know, what's, what's the size of Facebook's market, right?”
Michael Treskow Sep 21, 2015 ▶ 11:01 20 VC 073: Life Inside Accel Partners with Michael Treskow @ Accel
Sep 21, 2015 bullish
Disclosure
Treskow: Accel announces investment in Spanish mapping startup CartoDB
“Yeah, so, so we just announced an investment in CartuDB, which is a Spanish mapping data processing and visualization engine that we're super excited about.”
Michael Treskow Sep 21, 2015 ▶ 22:20 20 VC 073: Life Inside Accel Partners with Michael Treskow @ Accel
Sep 21, 2015 negative
Disclosure
Treskow: Accel avoids cleantech and biotech due to lack of expertise
“So, so we do not look, for example, at cleantech or biotech because, you know, I know nothing about that space.”
Michael Treskow Sep 21, 2015 ▶ 13:39 20 VC 073: Life Inside Accel Partners with Michael Treskow @ Accel
Nov 9, 2015 positive
Opinion
Kanji: Accel and Index are the best venture firms in Europe
“Axel's a great firm. I mean, it's probably one of the best in Europe, if not the best, alongside of Index.”
Hussein Kanji Nov 9, 2015 ▶ 3:42 20 VC 086: Starting A New Venture Fund and How London Compares To The US with Hussein Kanji @ Hoxton Ventures
Nov 9, 2015 neutral
Assertion Supported
Kanji: Accel operates European venture funds exceeding $500 million each
“Axel's more than half a million, half a billion per fund, so 500 something plus Per fund.”
Hussein Kanji Nov 9, 2015 ▶ 3:48 20 VC 086: Starting A New Venture Fund and How London Compares To The US with Hussein Kanji @ Hoxton Ventures
Jan 18, 2016 positive
Disclosure
Destin: Accel Won Deliveroo Deal Despite Below-Market Valuation Offer
“We dug into microeconomics fairly hard, and then it was an insane feeding frenzy, because I think they had five or six competing term sheets. We were in first, we were well below market valuation”
Fred Destin Jan 18, 2016 ▶ 38:44 20VC: Fred Destin @ Accel on Why Startups Fail & Founders Get Fired?
Jan 18, 2016
Disclosure
Fred Destin Has Fired Only Two Startup Founders in His Career
“So one of the great failings for me is when we have to let a founder go, and I hate doing it, and it's only happened twice in my career, and I hope it doesn't happen again.”
Fred Destin Jan 18, 2016 ▶ 16:03 20VC: Fred Destin @ Accel on Why Startups Fail & Founders Get Fired?
Jan 18, 2016 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Destin: Regretful VC investments correlate with rushed founder diligence
“The investments that I regret making Are systematically the ones where I didn't spend enough time getting to know the founders. So there's an almost perfect correlation with shit where I wish I hadn't invested, and the fact that I didn't have time to build a r…”
Fred Destin Jan 18, 2016 ▶ 20:53 20VC: Fred Destin @ Accel on Why Startups Fail & Founders Get Fired?
Jan 18, 2016 negative
Insight
Destin: Detailed VC rejection emails systematically lead to founder arguments
“So I used to write these beautiful no emails that were very, very well grounded with a lot of feedback. You know what systematically happens is people come back and they're like, you didn't get this, you didn't get that. It's like, I'm actually not trying to b…”
Fred Destin Jan 18, 2016 ▶ 28:52 20VC: Fred Destin @ Accel on Why Startups Fail & Founders Get Fired?
Jan 20, 2016 neutral
Disclosure
Accel typically knows founders for up to 12 months before investing
“I think overall, we probably know our founders for, you know, upwards of 12 months sometimes before we before we make an investment.”
James Cameron Jan 20, 2016 ▶ 7:21 20VC: James Cameron @ Accel on Building Great Startup Communities and The Rise of Enterprise and Cyber Security Software
Jan 20, 2016 positive
Disclosure
Accel made its first New Zealand investment in accounting software Xero
“In New Zealand, even, we did our first Kiwi investment this year, a company called Xero.”
James Cameron Jan 20, 2016 ▶ 4:08 20VC: James Cameron @ Accel on Building Great Startup Communities and The Rise of Enterprise and Cyber Security Software
Jan 20, 2016
Disclosure
Accel rejected James Cameron's startup pitch before hiring him as an investor
“But oddly enough, the first interaction I had with Accel was when I went in there and I was pitching them my business. So I was on the other side of the table from where I am now. And it was a good experience. You know, I was politely shown the door. I said, t…”
James Cameron Jan 20, 2016 ▶ 2:53 20VC: James Cameron @ Accel on Building Great Startup Communities and The Rise of Enterprise and Cyber Security Software
Jan 20, 2016 bullish
Opinion
Accel would back Deliveroo founder Will Shu on virtually any idea
“Will Shue over at Deliveroo. I mean, the guy could get anything off the ground. I think it's just a level of ambition and sheer bloody mindedness that makes you want to back him no matter what company. He could come in with Facebook for dogs and I think we'd p…”
James Cameron Jan 20, 2016 ▶ 25:07 20VC: James Cameron @ Accel on Building Great Startup Communities and The Rise of Enterprise and Cyber Security Software
Jan 20, 2016 positive
Insight
Crossing the Chasm has everything needed to scale enterprise software
“More, I think, you know, I think there's everything you ever need to learn about scaling an enterprise software company is in that book.”
James Cameron Jan 20, 2016 ▶ 21:26 20VC: James Cameron @ Accel on Building Great Startup Communities and The Rise of Enterprise and Cyber Security Software
May 4, 2016 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Accel's 2015 portfolio held an average 16 months of cash runway
“At the end of last year, the vast, vast, vast majority of companies had more than 12 months of cash. I think of the 105 active portfolio companies something in the high nineties had more than 12 months of cash with the average being closer to 16.”
Brian O'Malley May 4, 2016 ▶ 9:42 20VC: Accel's Brian O'Malley On The Prioritisation Of Growth, The Metrics That Show True Customer Retention & Why The Most Interesting Companies Create A Market
May 20, 2016
Disclosure
Drury: Xero IPO'd first before raising from hedge funds and VCs
“We did our IPO first. Then we brought in the hedge funds, who, because of the compression in the US market with BC's doing most of the big deals, the private, the hedge fund guys, sorry, had to go out and find global deals. And then it's only really recently t…”
Rod Drury May 20, 2016 ▶ 16:03 20VC: Xero's Rod Drury on IPO on Day 1 To Hedge Fund to VC & Doing Startups Backward
Nov 16, 2016 negative
Assertion Partly supported
Accel's returns were not top-tier prior to its Facebook investment
“Excel's returns prior to the Facebook fund weren't the best in the industry, and so some analyst types in the LP community were like, well, you know, should I stay in Excel or not?”
Paul Martino Nov 16, 2016 ▶ 26:49 20VC: Investing In Sectors That Were Cool 2 Years Ago, What Accel's Facebook Fund Taught a Generation of LPs & Why LPs Need A New Discovery Process with Paul Martino, Founding Partner @ Bullpen Capital
Nov 16, 2016 negative
Insight
Fear of missing outliers traps LP capital in underperforming legacy funds
“This has now trained a generation of LPs to be scared to death to cut off funds that aren't performing well, because they could be just around the corner from Facebook. And as a result, a lot of that money that should be going to new and innovative funds gets …”
Paul Martino Nov 16, 2016 ▶ 27:07 20VC: Investing In Sectors That Were Cool 2 Years Ago, What Accel's Facebook Fund Taught a Generation of LPs & Why LPs Need A New Discovery Process with Paul Martino, Founding Partner @ Bullpen Capital
Dec 16, 2016 bullish
Disclosure
Qualtrics rejected Series A term sheets $100M-$150M higher in valuation
“We never optimized funding for economics. We had term sheets at a hundred and a hundred and fifty million dollars more than what we went with.”
Ryan Smith Dec 16, 2016 ▶ 14:39 20VC: Qualtrics' Ryan Smith on Building A $Bn Company & Raising The Largest Series A Since 2008 From Sequoia & Accel
Dec 16, 2016 bullish
Opinion
Smith: Accel's Ryan Sweeney has set an unprecedented standard in late-stage investing
“Ryan Sweeney's in Excel, they put on a clinic in late stage investing that I don't think anyone in tech has ever seen before.”
Ryan Smith Dec 16, 2016 ▶ 11:28 20VC: Qualtrics' Ryan Smith on Building A $Bn Company & Raising The Largest Series A Since 2008 From Sequoia & Accel
May 24, 2017 positive
Assertion Supported
11 of 13 Pear Launchpad Companies Raised Top 2016 Seed Rounds
“So, you know, last year we had about 13 companies 11 of them ended up raising a seed round from great people. Accel, first round, Index, just really, really top name people. And the other two went back to school.”
Mar Hershenson May 24, 2017 ▶ 5:17 20VC: The Biggest Indicators Of Success In Founding Teams, How To Balance Both Vision and Operations & Taking Money From "The Man At The Rug Store" with Mar Hershenson, Founding Managing Partner @ Pear.vc
Jun 16, 2017 positive
Assertion Supported
Algolia raised a $53 million Series B led by Accel
“Just last week, he raised a whopping fifty-three million dollar Series B, led by Excel, with participation from Sasta, Des Trainer at Intercom, Jotty Bansal at AppDynamics, and Carl Valberg at Envision, including Prior Investors .9 Capital and Alvin.”
Harry Stebbings Jun 16, 2017 ▶ 0:15 20VC: Is Series B Really The Hardest To Raise? Should The Only Limiting Factor Post Series B Be Cash & When Is The Right Time To Move To The US with Nicolas Dessaigne, Founder & CEO @ Algolia
Dec 4, 2017 positive
Disclosure
Accel offered a high-end valuation term sheet to win the Atlassian deal
“So, a company like Atlassian, I think we were not on the low end of how we put in our term sheet in terms of the valuation that we ascribed to Atlassian at the time.”
Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 9:06 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years
Dec 4, 2017 negative
Opinion
Investing just to 'have a play' in hot sectors is bad advice
“So whether that's cryptocurrency, or Google Glass, or whatever the hot category is of that year, of that couple of years, I think it's not good advice to quote-unquote have a play in X category. Because if you are able to pick the best, that may be the company…”
Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 21:02 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years
Dec 4, 2017 positive
Insight
Diverse board syndicates with differing viewpoints drive long-term startup success
“Having a diverse syndicate that has different points of view to the board, even if you don't a hundred percent always agree with the other members of that board, can actually make a dramatic difference in helping the company be successful long-term.”
Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 21:57 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years
Dec 4, 2017 positive
Assertion Supported
Rich Wong was Atlassian's first outside board member and lead investor
“Rich also sits on the boards of the likes of Checker, Osmo, Rovio, and Atlassian, where, fun fact, he was the first outside board member and lead investor.”
Harry Stebbings Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 0:50 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years
Dec 4, 2017 positive
Disclosure
Accel sourced Qualtrics early by building relationships in Salt Lake City
“Qualtrics, is a good example of that. Hiding in Salt Lake, you didn't think that there was going to be a multi-billion dollar company in the area of market research surveys, but we were lucky enough to find that company relatively early on and spend the time b…”
Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 6:40 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years
Dec 4, 2017 neutral
Disclosure
Accel invested in Qualtrics, Rovio, and Atlassian via its growth fund
“The Qualtrics, the Rovios, the Alassians are all bets out of the growth fund, as it turns out.”
Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 10:29 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years
Dec 4, 2017 neutral
Disclosure
Accel reserves at least 1:1 follow-on capital for Series A investments
“When you do an early stage investment, On average, we at least reserve an equal amount of capital. So if you put in an eight million dollar series A, one might reserve eight, 10, eleven million dollars, you know, for follow-on rounds to support the company as …”
Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 11:07 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years
Dec 4, 2017
Insight
Startups need three to six months of repeatability before scaling growth
“Generally, I would say, you know, on median, it's a couple of quarters, three to six months of repeatability, and more important than just the time dimension is whether you can see the, you know, the atomic level of the unit economics working.”
Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 16:29 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years
Dec 4, 2017 neutral
Insight
VCs must maintain price discipline in categories with bounded upside
“That said, I think there are other companies that the category or the nature of the competitive set, you have to have some amount of price discipline in order to achieve true good returns. And I think those are in categories that you, there's just simply not a…”
Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 9:15 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years
Dec 4, 2017 positive
Insight
Non-Bay Area markets offer better deal signal-to-noise ratios
“If you actually spend your time in Salt Lake, in Austin, in Dallas, in Seattle, other markets, and then of course, internationally, whether it's Finland or Australia or other markets, there actually is less noise in those areas relative to the amount of intere…”
Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 14:00 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years
Dec 4, 2017 positive
Insight
VCs should spend 90% of their time pursuing high-bar distant deals
“Trying to have that high bar, that high standard is where you should spend 90% of your time, even if that company you identify as a long ways away from where you work or where you live.”
Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 7:33 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years
Dec 4, 2017 negative
Opinion
Most Silicon Valley startups make the mistake of scaling too quickly
“In general, I think most companies, especially in a capital rich VC environment in Silicon Valley, most of companies are largely make the mistake of stepping on the gas too quickly. And I think wasting precious capital or founder dilution, depending which way …”
Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 15:55 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years
Dec 4, 2017 positive
Disclosure
Accel's most recent publicly announced investment is Cairo-based Instabug
“The most recent publicly announced investment is a company called Instabug, which is based out of Cairo, Egypt.”
Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 23:36 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years
Dec 6, 2017 positive
Insight
Flomenberg: AI startups must build workflow software before building models
“It comes back to this notion of workflow first, data capture, followed by model building and iterations.”
Jake Flomenberg Dec 6, 2017 ▶ 8:55 20VC: The Value Chain of Machine Learning, Is There Really An Incumbency Advantage in ML & Will The Rise In Cyber Remain For the Long Term with Jake Flomenberg, Partner @ Accel
Dec 6, 2017 negative
Insight
Flomenberg: AI startups cannot build durable differentiation solely through algorithms
“A lot of the companies that I meet, they come up to me and they picked a spot that's very close to that algorithm dot on the top, and my concern with that is it's very hard to imagine an algorithm that's durably differentiable.”
Jake Flomenberg Dec 6, 2017 ▶ 6:23 20VC: The Value Chain of Machine Learning, Is There Really An Incumbency Advantage in ML & Will The Rise In Cyber Remain For the Long Term with Jake Flomenberg, Partner @ Accel
Dec 6, 2017 positive
Insight
Flomenberg: Data feedback loops provide stronger moats than initial dataset size
“That's where I think a lot of this feedback loop and sort of supervised learning around the data is Actually becomes a little bit more of an advantage than the original data set itself.”
Jake Flomenberg Dec 6, 2017 ▶ 12:39 20VC: The Value Chain of Machine Learning, Is There Really An Incumbency Advantage in ML & Will The Rise In Cyber Remain For the Long Term with Jake Flomenberg, Partner @ Accel
Dec 6, 2017 negative
Insight
Flomenberg: Advising startups to raise whatever market allows drives risky overspending
“Raise what the market will bear. A lot of startups dig themselves into a lot of trouble by raising, and more importantly, behaving like They don't have to worry about the next round, and overspending can put you in very tricky situations.”
Jake Flomenberg Dec 6, 2017 ▶ 21:53 20VC: The Value Chain of Machine Learning, Is There Really An Incumbency Advantage in ML & Will The Rise In Cyber Remain For the Long Term with Jake Flomenberg, Partner @ Accel
Nov 30, 2018
Disclosure
Blomfield: Monzo closed 2018 funding round preemptively without full process
“General Catalyst were really keen to do it preemptively. So we didn't go through an enormously drawn out fundraising process. They sort of came in with an offer that we thought was really attractive, and it saved us a time of doing a full fundraising process. …”
Tom Blomfield Nov 30, 2018 ▶ 24:19 20VC: Monzo's Tom Blomfield on The 3 Phases of Startup Scaling, The Secret To Building a 1.2m Community with No Advertising & How To Use Boards As A Tool To Instil Operational Excellence
Jan 15, 2019 bearish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Destin: Data will not rapidly disrupt early-stage venture capital
“And so I think that the notion that data is going to disrupt early-stage venture fast to me is somewhat exaggerated because I mean, we did some of that work at Accel. It is insanely hard to derive signal from the very Fuzzy nature of the early stage data we ge…”
Fred Destin Jan 15, 2019 ▶ 21:12 20VC: Stride's Fred Destin on The Acceptable vs Non-Acceptable Risks When Investing, How Startup Founders Can Improve The Quality of Their Decision-Making and Must Play for Batting Average & Why Plans Do Not Matter and No Board Member Should Bash An Entre
Jan 21, 2019 positive
Assertion Supported
Greenspring Associates Has Backed Accel, Founders Fund, and Thrive
“As for their fund investing, they've backed the likes of Excel, Founders Fund, Thrive, Lightspeed, Foundry Group, and many more incredible managers.”
Harry Stebbings Jan 21, 2019 ▶ 0:33 20VC: The Framework LPs Use To Assess Emerging Managers, What Concerns and Excites LPs in Potential Opportunities & The Current State of Seed Today with Hunter Somerville, Partner @ Greenspring Associates
Jun 22, 2020 positive
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Wilkinson: Tiny would raise VC if a portfolio company needed $100M burn
“So I would say that if we had a business that was obviously in need of a large amount of capital, And we needed somebody at the table who was willing to take a big risk where we knew that in order to grow it into a billion dollar business, we'd need to burn a …”
Andrew Wilkinson Jun 22, 2020 ▶ 17:31 20VC: Andrew Wilkinson on Building The Berkshire Hathway of Tech, Sustainable vs Unsustainable Growth and The Relationship Between Money and Freedom
Jul 31, 2020 positive
Disclosure
Wilkes: Galileo raised venture capital primarily to get press and analyst coverage
“When we did make a decision to raise, you know, we were profitable and had been profitable for quite some time. We had a large and scaling business, but it was hard to get analysts and press to pay attention to you or to consider you as an alternative. It's an…”
Clay Wilkes Jul 31, 2020 ▶ 18:04 20VC: Why The Unbundling of Fintech Will Continue, How VCs Are Propping Up The Neo-Banking Industry & Why We Need A New Framework To Value Businesses Today with Clay Wilkes, Founder & CEO @ Galileo
Aug 24, 2020 neutral
Disclosure
Lavingia: Accel Invested $400K in Gumroad's $1.1M Seed Round
“Our pre-seed round, or our seed round back then it was called, was 1.1 million. Excel put 400 K into that.”
Sahil Lavingia Aug 24, 2020 ▶ 30:21 20VC: Sahil Lavingia on Rolling Funds and Their Impact on The Future of Venture, How To Evaluate Market, Team and Product, The Value of Party Rounds & The Pros and Cons of Multi-Stage Funds Investing at Seed
Aug 24, 2020 negative
What-if
Sahil Lavingia regrets taking Accel's $400K seed check over super angels
“Frankly, if I could go back in time, I would have said no to them. I would have given that 400 K a hundred K to four different people, super angels or angels, or even split it further.”
Sahil Lavingia Aug 24, 2020 ▶ 30:28 20VC: Sahil Lavingia on Rolling Funds and Their Impact on The Future of Venture, How To Evaluate Market, Team and Product, The Value of Party Rounds & The Pros and Cons of Multi-Stage Funds Investing at Seed
Nov 12, 2020 positive
Disclosure
Levine: 18 of 25 mature Accel seed deals successfully raised Series A
“So every deal we'd done at the seed stage in three years, we'd done about 40 deals, and we termed 25 of them at maturity. So 15 of them were still too new at the time we did this analysis. So they were like, you know, six months in, so they weren't looking to …”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 33:01 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Nov 12, 2020 positive
Disclosure
Levine: Accel's Slack, Sentry, and Cloudera investments originated as seed deals
“Even at Excel, our first investment in Slack was a seed. Our investment in Sentry started as a seed. Our investment in Cloudera was an EIR.”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 29:35 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Nov 12, 2020 positive
Insight
Levine: Liquid, Fast-Moving VC Markets Favor Established Market Leaders
“A very liquid market where things move quick tends to bias towards market leaders over periods of time”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 13:00 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Nov 12, 2020 negative
Disclosure
Levine refuses to invest in unlikable founders despite potential financial returns
“There's a lot of ways to make money backing people you might not particularly like, and I effectively will forego those.”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 14:24 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Nov 12, 2020 positive
Disclosure
Levine: Accel typically buys over 10% ownership in seed rounds
“So typically in our seeds, we're buying over 10% of a business.”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 31:18 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Nov 12, 2020 neutral
Disclosure
Levine has never invested right around the $1M ARR threshold
“As far as I know, I have not once done a deal right before, right after hitting a million dollars of ARR.”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 15:58 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Nov 12, 2020 positive
Disclosure
Levine: Accel bought 20% of Sentry at $6M, 25% of Scale
“The first investment I led in Century was at a six million dollar post money, and we purchased about 20% of the business. That was five years ago. Scale, the first deal was at a fifteen million dollar post money, and we bought 25% of the business.”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 31:27 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Sep 2, 2021 negative
Insight
Gandhi: Overcapitalized startups lose operational rigor and suffer downstream issues
“An overcapitalized business doesn't always have the same rigor in terms of how you run it as a company that's been capitalized thoughtfully. It's also getting ahead of yourself creates all these issues downstream potentially.”
Sameer Gandhi Sep 2, 2021 ▶ 26:29 20VC: The Crowdstrike Memo: Accel's Sameer Gandhi on Leading Multiple Internal Rounds for Crowdstrike, Telling George Kurtz to Go Shop His Term Sheet, How To Think Through Market Sizing & The Importance of Speed of Execution and Knowing When To Go Slow To
Sep 2, 2021 negative
Insight
Gandhi: High implementation services revenue signals underlying product issues
“If the percentage of that rises too much in the company, it really tells me that there are product issues at the root of what's happening there.”
Sameer Gandhi Sep 2, 2021 ▶ 20:32 20VC: The Crowdstrike Memo: Accel's Sameer Gandhi on Leading Multiple Internal Rounds for Crowdstrike, Telling George Kurtz to Go Shop His Term Sheet, How To Think Through Market Sizing & The Importance of Speed of Execution and Knowing When To Go Slow To
Sep 2, 2021
Disclosure
Accel told CrowdStrike founder George Kurtz to shop their term sheet
“Why don't you take my offer, my term sheet, you have it in your back pocket. So when you have these other conversations, Go in knowing that your deal done already, and if someone comes along and offers you something much better, or you think they're additive t…”
Sameer Gandhi Sep 2, 2021 ▶ 24:56 20VC: The Crowdstrike Memo: Accel's Sameer Gandhi on Leading Multiple Internal Rounds for Crowdstrike, Telling George Kurtz to Go Shop His Term Sheet, How To Think Through Market Sizing & The Importance of Speed of Execution and Knowing When To Go Slow To
Sep 2, 2021 neutral
Assertion Supported
Gandhi: Accel invested in CrowdStrike at a $150M post-money valuation
“So I never looked at it as a three to five X. I looked at it as we're investing in a company, you know, in the first round when we did it was a 150 posts or something like that.”
Sameer Gandhi Sep 2, 2021 ▶ 13:25 20VC: The Crowdstrike Memo: Accel's Sameer Gandhi on Leading Multiple Internal Rounds for Crowdstrike, Telling George Kurtz to Go Shop His Term Sheet, How To Think Through Market Sizing & The Importance of Speed of Execution and Knowing When To Go Slow To
Sep 2, 2021
Insight
Gandhi: Go-to-market investments require market timing within a two-year window
“I think we really look at it and say like, it's gotta be, you know, within plus or minus a year or two. That's the right way to look at it. If you're later than that, you're too late. And I think if you're earlier than that, it's just a different kind of inves…”
Sameer Gandhi Sep 2, 2021 ▶ 10:05 20VC: The Crowdstrike Memo: Accel's Sameer Gandhi on Leading Multiple Internal Rounds for Crowdstrike, Telling George Kurtz to Go Shop His Term Sheet, How To Think Through Market Sizing & The Importance of Speed of Execution and Knowing When To Go Slow To
Sep 2, 2021 neutral
Disclosure
Gandhi: Accel's pre-mortem downside for CrowdStrike was an incident response business
“I think the number one thing on this was like, man, we just whiffed on the cloud native concept, and nobody's willing to do it, you know, like, that was one where, if you got that wrong, you know, and I think you see in my memo, it's like, well, if we totally …”
Sameer Gandhi Sep 2, 2021 ▶ 31:41 20VC: The Crowdstrike Memo: Accel's Sameer Gandhi on Leading Multiple Internal Rounds for Crowdstrike, Telling George Kurtz to Go Shop His Term Sheet, How To Think Through Market Sizing & The Importance of Speed of Execution and Knowing When To Go Slow To
Oct 25, 2021
Assertion Supported
Deliveroo raised over $1.7 billion prior to its 2021 IPO
“Prior to their IPO earlier this year, Will raised over 1.7 billion dollars for the company from some of the best in the business, including Excel, Index, General Catalyst, Green Oaks and more.”
Harry Stebbings Oct 25, 2021 ▶ 0:19 20VC: Deliveroo Founder Will Shu on The IPO This Year, The Rise of Quick Commerce and The Fierce Competition with Uber Eats
Nov 8, 2021
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Swartz: Accel's inaugural 1983 fund was the easiest it ever raised
“I mean, I think it was the easiest fund we ever raised. We raised it in the 90 days or so, and as Arthur points out, it was a particularly ebullient era.”
Jim Swartz Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 8:24 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021 positive
Disclosure
Swartz: Accel partners can invest without group support
“The decision-making process, there's no votes, but, you know, you go around the table, and at the end of the discussion, project, it's always a project manager, somebody who's making the call. He or she knows whether they have the support of the group or not b…”
Jim Swartz Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 27:01 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021 positive
Disclosure
Patterson: Accel's international funds don't dilute focus due to decentralization
“The international funds actually don't affect focus because we decentralize all the investment decisions, which is about 99% of it to them.”
Arthur Patterson Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 32:33 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021
Insight
Patterson: A venture firm's first fundraise is always its most difficult
“The first fundraise is always your most difficult”
Arthur Patterson Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 7:52 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Swartz: Accel was named to be near the alphabet's beginning
“The Accel name, both Arthur and I spent our lives at the tail end of the alphabet. We wanted something at the front end of the alphabet. Going through a dictionary, he came across, it's actually a music term. It's short for accelerando, if you're into music.”
Jim Swartz Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 7:22 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021 bearish
Assertion Contradicted
Swartz: Tech revenue multiples in 2021 are 3x to 5x historical peaks
“We're at three to five X where we've ever been in our lifetime in terms of price to revenue of companies, three to five X where we were at the peak ever before”
Jim Swartz Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 20:06 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021 negative
Disclosure
Swartz: Accel avoids Sand Hill Road offices to prevent groupthink
“In terms of culture, that's why we never, ever would have an office on Sand Hill Road. We want to be anti-Sand Hill Road. We want to be anti-culture, venture capital culture. We want our own culture, independent thought processes.”
Jim Swartz Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 35:44 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Patterson: Accel partners prepared personal checks to reach $100M Fund III
“In the end, actually, we were a little bit short, and we were going to write checks ourselves to bring it over a hundred.”
Arthur Patterson Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 10:27 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021 positive
Assertion Supported
Patterson: Kleiner Perkins invested in Accel's $40M telecom fund in the 1980s
“Jim had made a really strategic move in about 83, 85, where we raised that XL-II was actually a focused telecom fund of a smaller size, but I think it was about forty million, and I think KP even invested in it.”
Arthur Patterson Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 13:27 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021 positive
Disclosure
Swartz: Accel maintains equal equity ownership with no partner hierarchy
“The single most important one is our philosophy of Equal ownership. You know, we've always had, you're either a full partner, or you're on your way to becoming a full partner as you grow. There are no gradations. There's no senior partners and junior partners …”
Jim Swartz Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 23:48 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Swartz: Accel's 1989 Fund III was the firm's most challenging raise
“Oh, it's very clear. It was the third fund, which we raised in 1989 because I mean, I could write a book on the tactics to get that damn thing done. It took us a year, maybe a little more.”
Jim Swartz Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 9:29 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021
Insight
Swartz: Accel partners must handle withering criticism to survive
“In Excel, if you can't withstand withering criticism, you probably aren't going to last.”
Jim Swartz Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 28:11 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021
Insight
Patterson: Deal-swapping politics ruin risk-taking culture in VC firms
“The most important thing to us is we don't have politics because what you can get into in these firms is, well, I approve your deal and you'll approve mine. That's not the way to create the right risk environment. We have to encourage risk, but we have to have…”
Arthur Patterson Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 28:27 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021
Insight
Patterson: Early-stage investments are more price-protected than growth deals
“Well, I think if you're in the early stage, particularly, you're more price protected. You can still have a good idea for a startup. Your exposure, when you're putting money into things at the four billion dollar valuation, or something like that, and large am…”
Arthur Patterson Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 20:52 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021 neutral
Disclosure
Swartz: Accel co-founders began relinquishing firm equity around 2000
“So we started giving up our ownership in the firm, you know, beginning around 2000 or so late nineties, early 2000 started scaling back, which allowed others to grow.”
Jim Swartz Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 24:29 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021 bearish
Disclosure
Swartz: Selling high-priced assets expecting an imminent market crash
“Personally, I'm behaving like There's a major crash coming. And so whatever opportunity I have to get out of very high priced assets, I do.”
Jim Swartz Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 21:24 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021 neutral
Assertion Supported
Swartz: Software and communications were under 15% of 1980s VC
“You go back in that era, those two sectors were maybe 10 to 15% of the total investing that was going on at the”
Jim Swartz Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 7:04 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021
What-if
Patterson: Accel could not have raised its inaugural fund six months later
“If we'd waited another six months, I don't think we could have.”
Arthur Patterson Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 8:19 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Nov 8, 2021 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Patterson: Modern SaaS startups are less vulnerable to economic cycles
“This time, almost all of the companies are continuing revenue service companies. The managements are planning, you know, multi-years ahead, and they're much easier businesses to run and build And they're much more sustainable and much less vulnerable to the ec…”
Arthur Patterson Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 19:27 20VC Special: Accel Founders Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz on Building Accel Into One of the Most Prominent Venture Firms Over Four Decades, How Today's Market Compares To The Dot Com Bubble, How To Do Generational Transition Well and Why Accel Will Nev
Jun 27, 2022
Disclosure
De Rycker: Accel proactively marks down private portfolio valuations during downturns
“We're pretty proactive about taking down the valuations, but they're already sitting in pretty deep discounts.”
Sonali De Rycker Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 13:48 Sonali De Rycker | How I Became a Partner at Accel; Type 1 vs. Type 2 Mistakes | 20VC #902 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 27, 2022 negative
Disclosure
De Rycker: Accel's early hiring mistakes stemmed from ignoring emotional characteristics
“When we made mistakes, we were, what we were getting wrong was kind of the emotional characteristics, and really the who As opposed to the how or the what.”
Sonali De Rycker Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 24:32 Sonali De Rycker | How I Became a Partner at Accel; Type 1 vs. Type 2 Mistakes | 20VC #902 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 27, 2022 positive
Assertion Supported
De Rycker: Accel operates globally without a CEO or top-down structure
“The fact that that exists without a CEO, some top-down instrumentation, any kind of top-down structure just shows how frankly authentic it is because it has to endure.”
Sonali De Rycker Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 21:22 Sonali De Rycker | How I Became a Partner at Accel; Type 1 vs. Type 2 Mistakes | 20VC #902 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 27, 2022 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
De Rycker: Accel pays team-wide bonuses when junior investors source winning deals
“If one of the younger investment team members identifies a great company, A great founder that we actually end up investing in. Everybody gets a bonus because that's sort of a way to hard code collaboration”
Sonali De Rycker Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 20:24 Sonali De Rycker | How I Became a Partner at Accel; Type 1 vs. Type 2 Mistakes | 20VC #902 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 27, 2022
Assertion Not checkable as stated
De Rycker: Accel reviews all missed investment deals in team post-mortems
“We put all the companies down that we got wrong, and we really figure out why we got it wrong as a group, and we try to learn from each other's mistakes.”
Sonali De Rycker Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 47:53 Sonali De Rycker | How I Became a Partner at Accel; Type 1 vs. Type 2 Mistakes | 20VC #902 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 27, 2022 negative
Insight
De Rycker: Blindly exercising pro-rata rights severely damaged VC fund performance
“The biggest mistakes were people just putting a lot of pro rata money in or just following in and supporting companies. So you get your outliers, but then if a lot of your percentage of your fund goes into companies that actually don't return capital because y…”
Sonali De Rycker Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 43:21 Sonali De Rycker | How I Became a Partner at Accel; Type 1 vs. Type 2 Mistakes | 20VC #902 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 27, 2022 negative
Insight
De Rycker: Outcome scenario planning is useless for early-stage venture capital
“You can do all your outcome analysis. It doesn't really matter, especially if you invest. As early as we do.”
Sonali De Rycker Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 40:52 Sonali De Rycker | How I Became a Partner at Accel; Type 1 vs. Type 2 Mistakes | 20VC #902 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 27, 2022 negative
Disclosure
De Rycker misjudged bull market capital availability for strong fundraisers
“I think I personally just misjudged how much capital was available for the entrepreneurs who could fundraise really well. I really got that wrong, so it would have been better just to be early in some of these great businesses.”
Sonali De Rycker Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 49:12 Sonali De Rycker | How I Became a Partner at Accel; Type 1 vs. Type 2 Mistakes | 20VC #902 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 27, 2022 positive
Insight
De Rycker: Managing internal VC firm talent cannot be a side hustle
“We thought that we needed a Wendy-like figure, you know, but because it's all about if you're telling your companies to focus on culture, you're telling your companies to focus on talent, why would you not want to do that? And of course you can do that yoursel…”
Sonali De Rycker Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 17:21 Sonali De Rycker | How I Became a Partner at Accel; Type 1 vs. Type 2 Mistakes | 20VC #902 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 27, 2022 bullish
Assertion Supported
De Rycker: Accel backed Spotify at $70M revenue and 1.5M subscribers
“When we invested, it was sort of seventy-ish million in gross revenue. I mean, it's ten billion now. And It was about a million and a half paying users”
Sonali De Rycker Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 38:33 Sonali De Rycker | How I Became a Partner at Accel; Type 1 vs. Type 2 Mistakes | 20VC #902 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 27, 2022 positive
Insight
De Rycker: Asking candidates about negative feedback shortcuts background reference checks
“When you ask someone, for example, you know, what was the most surprising negative feedback that you got, and why do you think you got it? The person will tell you something that you're never going to find out. So that was a really interesting question for me,…”
Sonali De Rycker Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 26:19 Sonali De Rycker | How I Became a Partner at Accel; Type 1 vs. Type 2 Mistakes | 20VC #902 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 27, 2022 negative
Opinion
De Rycker: The venture market devolved into cheerleading and party rounds
“And by the way, there's very few of those discussions that happen. It's become a cheerleading market. And I hope that goes away with this current cycle, but it's pretty dis, it's pretty dismaying to see where the market had got to. It was like fragmented cap t…”
Sonali De Rycker Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 46:22 Sonali De Rycker | How I Became a Partner at Accel; Type 1 vs. Type 2 Mistakes | 20VC #902 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 29, 2022 bearish
Assertion Contradicted
Swartz: Revenue Multiples Are 3x to 5x Above Historical Peaks
“If you do a careful analysis of the multiples here in the marketplace, we're at three to five X where we've ever been in our lifetime, price to revenue of companies, three to five X where we were at the peak ever before.”
Jim Swartz Jun 29, 2022 ▶ 7:00 20VC: The Memo: Bill Gurley, Doug Leone, Keith Rabois; Investing Lessons from Prior Busts, How Their Investor Psychology Changed, What Can Be Applied To Today's Market
Jun 29, 2022 negative
Insight
Sonali De Rycker: Venture funds fail when they stop investing in downturns
“One is never stop investing. The minute you lose your confidence, you lose your right to exist. Because if you look at the funds that were around in 2000, so many of them disappeared exactly for that reason.”
Sonali De Rycker Jun 29, 2022 ▶ 18:52 20VC: The Memo: Bill Gurley, Doug Leone, Keith Rabois; Investing Lessons from Prior Busts, How Their Investor Psychology Changed, What Can Be Applied To Today's Market
Jul 2, 2022 positive
Opinion
Yanisse: Accel's Rich Wong is exceptional at coaching first-time founders
“Rich Wong from Excel is amazing. So he is really founder friendly really good at coaching, you know, first time founders and helping without imposing any vision or strategy, just helping the founders grow and learn.”
Daniel Yanisse Jul 2, 2022 ▶ 26:47 Daniel Yanisse: Biggest Mistakes Founders Make in the Hiring Process | 20VC #903 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Dec 16, 2022 neutral
Assertion Supported
Facebook Had Nine Employees When Accel Offered a $100 Million Valuation
“Facebook at this time was nine people. It was a nine person company. They were in a hundred different colleges and it was called the Facebook, not, it wasn't yet Facebook. And we met the day they got their term sheet from Excel you know, for the a hundred mill…”
Hadi Partovi Dec 16, 2022 ▶ 14:53 Hadi Partovi: How I Became an Advisor to Mark Zuckerberg; Lessons from Steve Ballmer | 20VC #961 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 6, 2023 positive
Opinion
Basu Trivedi: Accel's Vas Nadarajan is an underappreciated top board member
“In my peer group and sort of our generation, although you're younger than me and I'm younger than Vaz, I still think of us as sort of the same generation. I think he's one of the best and probably hasn't gotten the credit he deserves for that.”
Nikhil Basu Trivedi Sep 6, 2023 ▶ 1:06:07 Nikhil Basu Trivedi: Why 99% of AI Investments Will Go Bust | E1057 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 9, 2023
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Farquhar: Benchmark declined splitting Atlassian's initial round with Accel
“And actually like we went back to Peter Fenton at Benchmark was, I think the runner up bidder. And we went back to Excel and said, Hey, look, all things considered, maybe we should get two VCs or, you know, in there, even though there was a huge difference in …”
Scott Farquhar Oct 9, 2023 ▶ 14:25 Scott Farquhar: Founding Atlassian; How We Scaled to a $50B Valuation; The 4 Jobs of a CEO | E1070 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 9, 2023
Assertion Partly supported
Farquhar: Accel won Atlassian's initial round at $405M valuation
“And the valuations we got back varied between, there was one sort of high hundreds. There was three of them ended up in the two to three hundred million dollar range. And Excel, who ended up you know, winning for us came back at four hundred and five million U…”
Scott Farquhar Oct 9, 2023 ▶ 12:39 Scott Farquhar: Founding Atlassian; How We Scaled to a $50B Valuation; The 4 Jobs of a CEO | E1070 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 9, 2023 positive
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Farquhar: Accel achieved roughly a 100x return on Atlassian
“I don't know how much Excel's made off us, like it's a hundred times, I think something like that when they distributed.”
Scott Farquhar Oct 9, 2023 ▶ 14:44 Scott Farquhar: Founding Atlassian; How We Scaled to a $50B Valuation; The 4 Jobs of a CEO | E1070 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Dec 18, 2023
Disclosure
SCS Financial manages money for partners of Accel and Greylock
“And we manage money for the partners of founding partner of Excel and Greylock. So I knew that it was tough to get into those funds because I had it in and it still wasn't like”
Peter Lacaillade Dec 18, 2023 ▶ 4:29 Peter Lacaillade: Why Now is the Best Time to Invest in Emerging Managers | E1096 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 6, 2024 bullish
Disclosure
Wagner still holds much of his Facebook stock from Accel days
“I still hold a lot of our Facebook investment, you know, back from you know, the Excel days.”
Peter Wagner Mar 6, 2024 ▶ 50:20 Peter Wagner: 27 Years of Investing Lessons of Picking Founders, Price Discipline & Reserve | E1123 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 6, 2024 bearish
Disclosure
Wagner: My biggest cleantech contribution at Accel was avoiding bad deals
“Like, I devoted a substantial amount of my time to cleantech at one point you know, just because, and this was in like, 2006, 2007, 2008. And it was because, you know, no one else at the firm was spending any time on it, you know, I sort of felt like it was an…”
Peter Wagner Mar 6, 2024 ▶ 54:55 Peter Wagner: 27 Years of Investing Lessons of Picking Founders, Price Discipline & Reserve | E1123 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 6, 2024 positive
Insight
Wagner: Balancing guardrails and autonomy accelerates VC investor learning
“And then you give that person both enough rope to hang themselves so that they're, you know, feeling tremendous accountability. You know, what will be called the sleepless night factor. But also guardrails that protect them from making, you know, really egregi…”
Peter Wagner Mar 6, 2024 ▶ 12:55 Peter Wagner: 27 Years of Investing Lessons of Picking Founders, Price Discipline & Reserve | E1123 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 25, 2024 positive
Opinion
Clark: Accel Has Successfully Managed Generational Leadership Transitions
“I look at someone like Excel who, you know, is probably on the third or fourth generation now of leaders within that firm. I think they'd probably admit that, that, you know, they didn't get everything perfect, but I think they've handled most of those transit…”
David Clark Mar 25, 2024 ▶ 50:07 David Clark: Lessons from 32 Years of Fund Investing - Why Exits Will Be Larger | E1131 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 22, 2024 negative
Disclosure
Daniel Dines Rejected Sequoia Capital's Investment Offer for UiPath's Series B
“So I said basically no to Sequoia to our Series B, and we, Series B was led by Excel US, and Capital G, Kleiner Perkins, and some other people participated in, but I said no to Sequoia.”
Daniel Dines Apr 22, 2024 ▶ 1:19:22 Daniel Dines: From a Dollar a Day to Romania's Richest Man| Happiness, Wealth, Risk and more | E1143 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 17, 2024 neutral
Opinion
Sequoia and Accel are Index's primary consumer Series A competitors
“Clearly, clearly the folks at Sequoia are a big fierce competitor, and the folks at Acceler are fierce and, you know, I would say there are a number of different players, but those come to mind for consumer stuff. Certainly Sequoia comes to mind a lot. Benchma…”
Danny Rimer Jun 17, 2024 ▶ 1:18:48 Danny Rimer: The Biggest Lessons from Missing Snap, Airbnb, Spotify and Facebook | E1166 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 9, 2024 positive
Insight
Dasilva: Public market leadership offers founders more independence than VC backing
“How it feels different from VC, and we've had really, we had some really great VCs with Inovia and with Excel and some pension funds. But you really feel like there's a couple of personalities that are your bosses or not your bosses, but your key partners was,…”
Dax Dasilva Aug 9, 2024 ▶ 31:53 Dax Dasilva: $900M ARR at $2.6BN Market Cap?! Lightspeed, The Most Undervalued Public Company |E1188 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 14, 2024 neutral
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Frankel: Founders will always prioritize brand-name VC firms like Sequoia
“I think some founders still see, you know, a name in lights, and they go, I want that name beyond anything. I, if it's Sequoia, A-sixting Z, Accel, you name it, I want that name, and I think there will always be a steady supply of founders who think that way.”
David Frankel Oct 14, 2024 ▶ 5:51 David Frankel, MP @Founder Collective: Investing Lessons from Seeding Coupang, Pillpack & Suno|E1214 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 26, 2025 positive
Assertion Supported
O'Driscoll: Accel likely generated a $2 billion gain on Scale AI
“If Alexander Wang's highest and best use is as a senior employee at Meta, then isn't it wonderful that the free market system was able to pay everyone else, fifteen billion dollars, all power to excel who probably booked a two billion dollar gain here.”
Rory O'Driscoll Jun 26, 2025 ▶ 14:57 Navan Files to Go Public and Canva Pulls the Brakes: Why and What Happens? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Accel and Sequoia Hold Portfolio Books at 20% to 30% Discounts
“Usually the multi-stage firms think your perennial, like Excels, Or Sequoia. They're taking very aggressive discounts on, on basically all of their securities. Even if it's a great company that is maybe achieving even a higher price on the secondary market, th…”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 18:10 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 30, 2025 negative
Opinion
Stebbings: Andreessen Horowitz is Europe's biggest Series A threat
“When we sit and look at Series A, we don't sit and be frightened by Index or Excel or the big European players. We sit and be frightened of Andreessen coming into Europe. They're the ones who beat you.”
Harry Stebbings Oct 30, 2025 ▶ 1:24:03 OpenAI Restructuring: Who Wins and Who Loses & Mercor Raises $350M at a $10BN Valuation · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 20, 2025 neutral
Assertion Partly supported
Lemkin: Half of the $184B invested in VC in 2025 went to four companies
“They're estimated in a hundred eighty four billion in venture capital invested this year by their definition. Okay. The peak was 20, 21 of a hundred eighty three billion. So one more billion this year. Okay. But four of those half of the hundred eighty four bi…”
Jason Lemkin Nov 20, 2025 ▶ 55:01 Peter Thiel and Softbank Sell NVIDIA - Why? & Why VC Will Hit $1TRN and The Opening of Retail · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 12, 2026
Disclosure
Cannon-Brookes: Accel's $60M Atlassian investment in 2010 was 100% secondary
“When the Excel guys invested in Atlassian, right? It was all secondary. They put sixty million bucks in 2010. And they bid highest of the five VCs.”
Mike Cannon-Brookes Feb 12, 2026 ▶ 33:16 Anthropic's Super Bowl Ad: Who Won & Lost? | Sierra Hits $150M ARR: Is Customer Support Too Crowded? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026
Insight
Clements: Rapid growth can obscure underlying structural problems within a business
“Growth can obscure and blind you to a lot of underlying ills in the business.”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 25:17 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026
Disclosure
Clements: Extrapolating temporary ARR spikes as product-market fit is a trap
“There have been investments where, you know, a company went from, they had a million dollars of ARR, and then in the period that you know, before they fundraise, they had like a four million dollar quarter, and it's like, they've got it. Like the product marke…”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 24:24 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026 bullish
Opinion
Clements: Top public software companies are currently oversold
“I mean, the greatest companies of three, four, five years ago, many have gotten totally beat up in the public markets. I believe many are oversold, but you know, that's a separate conversation.”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 39:43 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026 positive
Opinion
Clements: Abridge founder Shiv Rao is a generational talent
“I don't know that I would characterize it as we lost, but the company that I, where I really, really loved the founder and we didn't get there was Shiv and a bridge. We actually hosted this AI dinner a couple of weeks ago and I was like, I'm going to manipulat…”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 59:53 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026 positive
What-if
Clements: Breaking VC rules for Rippling would have been worthwhile
“And I think like, I don't regret not breaking the rules in general, but you know, this would have been a time when it could have been worthwhile.”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 22:20 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026 negative
Disclosure
Clements: Accel missed investing in early AI foundation model companies
“A lot of firms miss the model companies early, and we're guilty of it.”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 27:31 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026 bullish
Assertion Open · timeframe Mar 2027
Clements: 95% of developers switch AI models daily
“And one of the things that we're learning is like 50% of developers switch model families on a daily basis and 95% of developers switch models on a daily basis.”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 6:24 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026 bullish
Disclosure
Clements: Accel's initial Cursor investment was priced at 4-5x year-end ARR
“Actually, this company is growing so quickly that on a multiples basis, you know, our first investment was at like four times, five times year-end ARR.”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 9:13 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026 bullish
Disclosure
Clements: Accel is not in Figma, calls company oversold
“We are not a part of Figma, but have a lot of respect for that company. But I know that Dylan is a generational founder, and it's a very important company with an incredible financial profile, and it just feels for a lot of ways, for a lot of reasons, oversold…”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 46:58 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026 negative
Disclosure
Clements: Accel lost ServiceTitan over rigid valuation caps before $9B valuation
“We had fallen in love with our envy. We were chasing this round. It was going to happen in the two 50 or three hundred million dollar range. And, you know, we had these rigid rules about like, you definitely can't pay more than six times, six to eight times fo…”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 16:28 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026
Disclosure
Clements: Accel did not sell secondary shares in Miro at $17B valuation
“We didn't take liquidity out of Miro at seventeen billion”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 48:48 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Clements: No company has ever built a single platform for engineering
“There has never been a platform company for engineering as a vertical and engineers are like, I mean, this is the fastest growing, most dynamic vertical there is, and no one has ever owned that.”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 8:26 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Clements: Public trillion-dollar market cap companies grew from zero to twelve
“A decade ago, there were zero companies worth a trillion dollars. Five years later, there were six public companies worth a trillion dollars. Today, there's a dozen companies worth a trillion dollars in the public market.”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 14:39 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026 positive
Disclosure
Clements: Accel regrets missing out on investing in ElevenLabs
“I think 11 Labs is a clear company that we wish we had been a part of. As you know, we haven't spent enough time with the founder, which is, you know, our loss. I think we really regret that one.”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 59:07 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026 neutral
Disclosure
Clements: Accel avoids major celebrations even after $14.9B exits
“There's a an appropriate congratulations and acknowledgement to Dan. There is a huge, loud, full-throated thank you to Alex, and then everybody gets the fuck back to work, you know, and like, it's a humbling industry, and you are only as good as the next thing…”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 43:31 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026 negative
Opinion
Clements: Traditional VC startup benchmarks are now largely obsolete
“I think this is why, you know, the benchmarks that used to give us all comfort are largely obsolete now. And so, like, you have to be really clued into the usage intensity of your product and really understand how people are using it.”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 25:00 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026
Insight
Clements: Losing a competitive deal stings more than missing it
“They're equally bad, but losing stings more. Having had the opportunity and failed, stings.”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 59:44 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 9, 2026
Assertion Partly supported
Clements: Accel invested in CrowdStrike at $160M valuation with $1M ARR
“The example I would point to is, you know, CrowdStrike. Samir Gandhi and John Locke intersected CrowdStrike when it was, you know, there was like a million dollars of software revenue and there was a nine million dollar consulting business, and like, that was …”
Miles Clements Mar 9, 2026 ▶ 49:00 "Cursor is Dead" is Total BS: Here is Why | Miles Clements · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 23, 2026 neutral
Assertion Supported
Stebbings: Accel and Sequoia raised $4B and $7B AI growth funds
“Excel adds four billion leaders fund to follow into hot AI growth rounds. Sequoia four days ago raises seven billion dollar growth round growth fund.”
Harry Stebbings Apr 23, 2026 ▶ 1:05:59 Cursor Acquired for $60BN | Anthropic Hits $1TRN in Secondary Markets & Figma, Adobe, Canva Dead? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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