Brad Feld
27 statements across 12 episodes · 7 bullish · 10 bearish · 8 people on the record · first statement May 18, 2015 by Tak Lo · said 214 times in 74 episodes since 2015 · across every show →
On the record as a speaker too: Brad Feld's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
Mentions by year
brought up most by Harry Stebbings (136), Seth Levine (14), Clinton Foy (6), Semil Shah (4), Philipp Moehring (4), Neeraj Agrawal (4), Arteen Arabshahi (4), Ryan McIntyre (3)
tap a year for its mentions
2026 1 mention in 1 episode
2025 1 mention in 1 episode
2024 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2023 1 mention in 1 episode
2022 9 mentions in 5 episodes 2 per episode
- Semil Shah: Lessons Learned Scaling from a $1M to a $50M Fund | 20VC #951 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Logan Bartlett: WTF is Happening at Growth Stage Investing? | 20VC #920 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Mo Koyfman: The Secret to Winning in Venture; Why Small Funds Outperform Large Funds | 20VC #915 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Peter Singlehurst: The Most Powerful Investor You've Never Heard of | 20VC #907 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- 20VC: Biggest Lessons and Challenges Building One of the Most Successful Seed Funds, How To Manage Investor Psychology, Self-Doubt and Insecurity & The Secret to Truly Successful Venture Partnerships with David Frankel, Co-Founder @ Founder Collective
- every mention in 2022, scene by scene →
2020 6 mentions in 6 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: Calm Founder Alex Tew on What It Takes To Build Viral Products Today, The Current State of Customer Acquisition Costs, What Makes The Best Brands
- 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
- 20VC: Biggest Lessons From Opendoor's Scaling Journey, How To Implement Systems for Growth & The Right Way To Structure Customer Discovery Processes with Julia DeWahl, Angel Investor
- 20VC: How To Solve The Chicken and Egg Problem in Marketplaces? How Important Is Differentiated Supply? How To Prevent Leakage? How to Create Marketplace Defensibility and more with Alyssa Ravasio, Founder & CEO @ Hipcamp
- 20VC: How Founders Should Think Through Distribution and Customer Acquisition Today, The Challenges of the Digital Advertising Duopoly Currently & How To Structure Company Post Mortems Effectively with Gabriel Weinberg, Founder & CEO @ DuckDuckGo
- 20VC: Portfolio Construction, Optimising SPVs, Opportunity Investing "Between Rounds", Being Distribution-Centric Over Product-Centric and Capital Concentration Within Funds With Sumeet Gajri, Chief Strategy Officer @ Carta
- every mention in 2020, scene by scene →
2019 27 mentions in 8 episodes 3 per episode
- 20VC: The Ultimate Episode For Emerging Managers: How To Determine How Big A Fund To Raise, What Is The Right Closing Strategy With LPs & Why We Will Not See The Eradication of Pre-Seed with John Fein, Founder & Managing Partner @ Firebrand Ventures
- 20VC: AOL Founder, Steve Case on Why The Best Venture Investments of The Next 10 Years Will Likely Not Be In The Valley, Why The CEO Must Be The Shock Absorber For Company Morale and Why Vision Without Execution is Hallucination
- 20VC: Techstars Founder David Cohen on Why Seed Investing Is A Different Asset Class To Venture, What Makes The Best And The Worst Board Members & Why Every Company Has To Have A Pessimist In The Room
- 20VC: NEA Partner, Dayna Grayson on Sourcing, Picking, Winning, Gut vs Data in Investment Decision-Making & The Evolution of Entrepreneurial Expectations of Venture
- 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
- 20VC: a16z's Ben Horowitz on How To Create An Environment of Trust with Founders, How and Why Creating Shocking Rules Is So Impactful To Culture & What The Samurai, Shaka Senghor and Toussaint Teach Us About Company Culture Building
- 20VC: Benchmark's Bill Gurley on 5 Traits Benchmark Look For When Adding To The Partnership, Why The Abundance of Capital Is Today's Biggest Challenge in VC & The Right Way To Think About Market Size When Assessing Opportunities
- 20VC: First Round's Josh Kopelman on Why Price Is Both An Art and A Science, Why Ownership Must Be Built on First Check and The Negative Consequences of Attribution in Venture
- every mention in 2019, scene by scene →
2018 7 mentions in 6 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: The Metrics That Matter In Early-Stage Consumer, Why Moats Matter More Than Brand Today and How VCs Deal with S*** Hit The Fan Moments with Jason Stoffer, Managing Partner @ Maveron
- 20VC: Top 3 Considerations When Evaluating Consumer Businesses Today | 700 Meetings, 70 LPs, 2 Years, What It Takes To Raise a First Time Fund| The Power of The Female Network In Action Today with Anu Duggal, Founding Partner @ Female Founders Fund
- 20VC: Why Partners Are There To Save Each Other From Themselves, Why Effective Reserve Allocation Is The Hardest Question In Venture & What Makes The Truly Special Board Members with Jeff Fagnan, Founding Partner @ Accomplice
- 20VC: Why Process is Everything In Good Venture Firms, Why GPs Should Have More Empathy For LPs and Lessons from 32 Years In VC, Chairing Over 25 Boards with Peter Parker, Managing Partner @ Bioinnovation Capital
- 20VC: Andy McLoughlin on The Benefits of Backing Unsexy Businesses with Non-Obvious Founders, How To Distinguish Between A Good Bridge Round and A Bridge To Nowhere & Whether VCs Really Do Add Value?
- 20VC: Why Vulnerability Is A Strength In VC, 3 Core Components That Make The Most Successful VCs & How VCs and Entrepreneurs Can Build Meaningful Relationships Pre-Investment with Brian Garrett, Founding Partner @ Crosscut Ventures
- every mention in 2018, scene by scene →
2017 26 mentions in 9 episodes 3 per episode
- 20VC: The Fundamentals To Creating A Successful Venture Partnership & The Optimal Investment Decision Making Process with Ryan McIntyre, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group
- 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group
- 20VC: Why Investors Have The Biggest Problem with Bias, Why Our Job Is To Maximise Risk & Why It Is Essential To Get Good at Losing with True Ventures Founder, Jon Callaghan
- 20VC: If You Do Not Like VCs, You Have Not Worked With a Good One, How Andreesen Have Added The Same Level of Value As A Co-Founder, Why Market Is The First Thing To Consider When Angel Investing & Why Series A Is A Hiring Decision with Roger Dickey, Foun
- 20VC: VC of The Year: Forerunner's Kirsten Green on 2 $Bn+ Exits in 1 Year, Why We Are In The Very Early Innings For Commerce & How Brand Has Fundamentally Changed Over The Last Decade
- 20VC: Tony Conrad on Straddling The Role Of Founder & Investor, What True Founder/Product Fit Looks Like & The Dangers of Party Rounds
- 20VC: Why Valuation Is Of Critical Importance At Seed, How To Understand Innovation Cycles & Having 3 CEOs and Burning $10m a Month with Lee Hower, Co-Founder @ NextView Ventures
- 20VC: The Radical Changes In Public Market Expectations, The Right Way To Assess Valuation & What It Means To Be A Disciplined & Diligent Investor with Randy Glein, Partner @ DFJ Growth
- 1 more episode that year, every mention in 2017 →
2016 71 mentions in 20 episodes 4 per episode
- 20VC: CEO Whisperer Jerry Colonna on How Investors Mimic Aggressive Behaviour To Cover Insecurity and Why Vulnerability is Key To Success In VC
- 20VC: How Entrepreneurs Should Manage Their Board & Why Time Constraints Are Always The Key To Progress with Paul Berberian @ Sphero
- 20VC: Why You Have To Be A Good Long Term Actor To Succeed in VC & How Owning An Esports Team Could Be A $Bn Outcome with Clinton Foy, General Partner @ Crosscut Ventures
- 20VC: Investing Lessons From Fred Wilson & Brad Feld and Why Fundraising Is An Art & Not Everyone Can Be An Artist with Howard Lindzon Founder @ Stocktwits & Managing Partner @ Social Leverage
- 20VC: Techstars Founder, David Cohen on Scaling Techstars Ventures and Investing In Uber, Twilio and Sendgrid
- 20VC: Why Hardware Is Actually Software Wrapped In Plastic & "Of Course Hardware Is Hard, Everything Is Hard" with Ben Einstein, Founder & General Partner @ Bolt VC
- 20VC: The Best Determinant Of Product Market Fit & Why Prior Experience Is Not Required For Founder Success with Neeraj Agrawal, General Partner @ Battery Ventures
- Uber's First Investor, First Round Capital's Rob Hayes on How The Deal Of The Decade Originated and Why Product Orientated VC Is The Future
- 12 more episodes that year, every mention in 2016 →
2015 63 mentions in 15 episodes 4 per episode
- 20 VC 066: FOUNDRY GROUP WEEK 1: Seth Levine: 'VC Is Not A Scalable Business'
- 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups
- FF 011: 'The Savviest Investors Don't Ask What If' with Ben Nader, CEO & Founder @ Butterfleye
- 20 VC 082: 500 Startups Week: Growth Hacking 101: How To 10x Your Conversion with Matt Lerner, Head of Distro Dojo London
- 20 VC 080: How VCs Can Differentiate Themselves with Patricia Nakache, General Partner @ Trinity Ventures
- 20 VC 079: BETAWORKS WEEK: East vs West Coast Investing with Peter Rojas, EIR @ Betaworks, Co-Founder @ Weblogs & Engadget
- 20 VC 059: How To Approach VCs with Arteen Arabshahi, VC @ Karlin Ventures
- 20 VC FF 021: From TechCrunch to Founder to TechCrunch with the legend, Steve O'Hear
- 7 more episodes that year, every mention in 2015 →
Everything said about Brad Feld, oldest first
May 18, 2015
Aug 3, 2015 positive
Aug 24, 2015 neutral
Every successful startup suffers near-death experiences requiring durability
“Every success I've ever been in involved in has had multiple points of failure, some of them near-death experiences for the company, and the great founders and the great companies and I think the great investors are the ones that have a lot of durability throu…”
Aug 24, 2015
Brad Feld's first startup returned 70 cents on the dollar
“Very first company was a company called Martingale software, which I started with a handful of fraternity brothers to write software for the Mac when the Apple Mac was just coming out, 1983, 1984, and the end result was we made almost no progress building any …”
Sep 7, 2015 positive
Clavier: Fitbit Would Have Died Without Brad Feld's Series A Investment
“Every single round of financing was either close to impossible, To raise, I had to beg Brad failed to invest in the Series A saving Fitbit, because without that investment from Brad, they would be dead, and even the Series B or the Series C were not easy, desp…”
Aug 15, 2016 positive
Oct 17, 2016
Nov 2, 2016 positive
Jun 11, 2018
Investors Make Money in Winners, but Friends in Losers
“One that's kicking around in my head recently is, you know, back in September, Fred Wilson, in his blog, he quoted Brad Feld, who said that, you make money in winners, but you make friends in losers. And, you know, it's absolutely so true, and it's been very t…”
Sep 30, 2019 negative
Feld: Individual macroeconomic forecasts are almost guaranteed to be wrong
“The interesting thing about where we are is it's very easy to prognosticate about what's going to happen with certainty, and it's almost guaranteed that those prognostications are going to be incorrect, and any one individual prognostication will be incorrect.”
Sep 30, 2019 negative
Feld: Founders and VCs waste time on performative 'fake' work
“CEOs spend a lot of time having fake CEO days, and I think VCs spend a lot of time having fake VC days. And if you really want to be successful, by the way, that translates to everybody on the leadership team, everywhere throughout a company, don't have fake f…”
Sep 30, 2019 negative
Sep 30, 2019 neutral
Brad Feld: The only way to know business partners is to work together
“The only real way to get to know someone is to do something with them. So the first of your evaluative criteria is a decision that you want to work with somebody else based on whatever external information you have. And then the second piece of evaluative crit…”
Sep 30, 2019 negative
Feld: VCs who react fearfully in downturns harm portfolio companies
“When things change, you have to be pragmatic. If you're reactionary and fearful, and, you know, all of a sudden, everybody says, oh, my God, the world is ending. You know, you must do these things. As a VC, that's not that helpful. It's more helpful to have a …”
Sep 30, 2019
Feld: Record holiday retail orders vanished overnight in 2008 crisis
“There's a whole bunch of companies that have already forgotten that in 2008 Christmas literally didn't happen. And it didn't happen because of the global downturn, recession, whatever, financial crisis. And the interesting thing was, I think like two months be…”
Sep 30, 2019 negative
Sep 30, 2019 negative
Sep 30, 2019 negative
Jul 27, 2020 positive
Jul 27, 2020
Brad Feld: Mental health stigma creates a personal doom loop for founders
“Realized that there was an incredible stigma around issues of mental health in our society broadly, but especially in the context of entrepreneurship. And that stigma that existed actually made things much, much worse for somebody who was Depressed, and that o…”
Jul 27, 2020 negative
Brad Feld: Constant entrepreneurial striving is bullshit and causes struggle
“Stopping striving is pretty enlightening, because our programming as people, as entrepreneurs especially, Is that you must constantly be striving to achieve the next goal or the next outcome. What a load of bullshit. And the words themselves kind of make me sh…”
Jul 27, 2020
Jul 27, 2020
Brad Feld: First major depressive episode lasted two years in mid-twenties
“I had my first major depressive episode when I was running my first company in my mid-twenties, and it was triggered by three things happening at the same time. The first was I ended up getting divorced from my first wife. Our relationship blew up. The second …”
Jul 27, 2020 negative
Jul 27, 2020 negative
Sep 11, 2020 positive
Harry Stebbings: Calm has raised over $143 million from top investors
“To date, the company's raised over a hundred and forty three million dollars in financing from some of the best, including Lightspeed, Insight, TPG, and then some very cool names, including Ashton Kutcher, Harry Styles, Brad Feld, and Jason Calicanis.”